The Florida Gators swept the events on day 2 of the 2013 All-Florida Invitational in Gainesville, Florida, including some big results from some of their young internationals.
New Zealander Corey Main began the session with a win in the 100 yard back in 47.70. He was a mid-season addition for the Florida men last season, and now with a full year to train, there’s big pressure on him to contribute both in the medley relays (he led off Florida’s 400 and NCAA’s, but was the slowest in the A final) and the freestyle events.
He looks prepared to do that, as he also won the 200 yard free in 1:37.69 later in the meet, followed by Scottish junior Dan Wallace (1:38.61), Polish senior Marcin Cieslak (1:39.06), and Italian Andrea D’Arrigo (1:39.17). That’s an international 1-2-3-4 for the Gators in an event where last year, they combined with four internationals to win the NCAA title in the 800 free relay.
On the women’s side, Canadian sophomore Sinead Russell took the same double, winning the 100 yard back in 54.40 and the 200 yard free in 1:48.16. After a very impressive freshman season, those times are both a bit faster than she lead-off her freshman campaign with (last year she was 54.5 and 1:48.8 in the same events).
Other international winners on the day include Marcin Cieslak, who took the 100 fly in 47.36, senior Hilda Luthersdottir, who won the women’s 100 breast in 1:03.26, and South African senior Sebastien Rousseau, who won the men’s 400 IM in 3:49.29.
Rousseau just out-touched Eduardo Solaeche-Gomez from Spain, who was a 3:49.47 for 2nd.
The American Gators, though still often very young, also picked up a few victories. Natalie Hinds took the 100 yard fly in 53.91.
In other events:
- Sophomore Lindsey McKnight won the 400 IM in 4:21.51. She really put some work into this race in the summer, swimming it at both the U.S. Open and the World Championship Trials. This swim is three seconds better than she opened her freshman campaign.
- Matt Elliott took the men’s 100 breaststroke in 55.52. He should be the key leg in the 400 medley relay this year, and if he can continue to improve as a junior, the Gator medleys are national championship contenders.
- The Florida women won the 200 medley relay with the team of Russell, Luthersdottir, Hinds, and Ellese Zalewski touching for a 1:41.99.
- The Florida men also won the 200 medley relay, with Main, Elliott, Rousseau, and deBorde.
- In the 800 free relay, Zalewski, McKnight, Russell, and Beisel comined for a 7:19.27. The Florida men’s relay of Wallace, Carlos Omana, Rousseau, and Main took the men’s race in 7:32.82.
In non-Gator swimming, Florida Gulf Coast’s 200 medley relay seems to be performing as well as many were afraid they might. They took 2nd in 1:43.31, and were really on Florida’s heels the whole way. That includes topping Florida State’s 1:43.72. The Seminoles had an explosive 22.50 anchor from Kaitlyn Dressel, older sister of Caeleb who broke two National High School Records on Saturday.
The Florida State men, who broke the ACC Record in the event last year, took 2nd in the 200 medley in 1:29.75. They were actually leading Florida in that race, but Paul Murray was a bit off on his anchor leg, clocking only 21.02 anchor if you believe the timing system.
Miami’s My Fridell took 3rd in the women’s 100 fly in 55.73. Florida State’s Pavel Sankovich was 2nd in the men’s 100 fly in 48.33 – he’s starting his first (and possibly last) full year of NCAA swimming well.
Full day 2 results available here.
Team Scoring After 2 Days
Women
1. Florida – 730
2. Florida State – 534
3. Florida Gulf Coast – 464
4. Miami – 279
5. Florida Southern – 255
6. North Florida – 208
7. Nova Southeastern – 96
Men
1. Florida – 841
2. Florida State – 658
3. Florida Southern – 346
4. Nova Southeastern – 319
5. Miami – 52
Werner had surgery I believe and didn’t Troy recruit 7 of the 10 top recruits form the state of Florida 3 years back – some of which are not in the program anymore.
There’s no doubt that UF has great international swimmers. What the article failed to mention (shocker) is that Matt Elliott performed well and so did Brad deBorde who split 19.69 twice on relays
What happened to Pawel Werner?
Florida’s International men seem to be the only ones capable of shout-outs due to their performance. Is this because they are doing so well or because they are the only top-tier athletes on the team? Instead of incorporating internationals into the program Troy is having trouble incorporating American swimmers into his top line up. I am not bashing internationals as they are much needed and make the NCAA exciting, I’m just saying that the last time internationals were seen this much, Auburn was getting bashed pretty heavily by the rest of the NCAA.
Florida’s men’s roster has 8 internationals and 28 Americans. I do not count D’Arrigo as international even though he currently swims for Italy as he’s lived in Gainesville for well over a year now and also has dual citizenship with the US. It’s a pretty balanced roster. It just seems like it isn’t because they have a nucleus of guys who have developed into absolute killers (Cieslak, Rousseau, Wallace, Main, Werner, Solaeche-Gomez) and most of them are ridiculously versatile swimmers. They’ve also been added gradually. Cieslak and Rousseau are seniors, Wallace and Solaeche-Gomez are juniors, and Werner and Main are sophomores.
Unless Florida can notch someone like Gunnar Bentz in recruiting (he swims the right events for UF), I… Read more »