Women's Swimming to Sends Seven to Nationals
Wednesday, November 28, 2007 | Women's Swimming & Diving
The University of Florida men's and women's swimming and diving teams will send 17 athletes to compete at the 2007 U.S. Short Course Nationals. The seventh ranked women's team will have seven participants while the fifth ranked men's team will be represented by 10 athletes. Three former Gators are also set to compete at the championships. Action is set to begin tomorrow, Thursday and continue through Saturday evening.
Bradley Ally (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.), Clark Burckle (Louisville, Ky.), Shaune Fraser (George Town, Cayman Islands), Balu Gerscak (Budapest, Hungary), Tim Hughes (Winter Park, Fla.), Dustin McLarty (DeLand, Fla.), Daniel Penniman (Pensacola, Fla.), Roland Rudolf (Budapest, Hungary), Rex Tullius (Port Orange, Fla.) and Tobias Work (Falmouth, Mass.) will all be in attendance at the weekend's meet. All 10 men have extensive experience on the national and international scenes, having swum at any one of this past summer's events, including the Pan American Games and ConocoPhillips U.S. Nationals.
The nine men combined have earned a total of 58 first place finishes this season, including eight-of-eight Florida first place finishes at the Gators' most recent meet with Florida State. Burckle and Fraser both lead the way with 10 first place finishes apiece; Rudolf has turned in eight while Hughes, Work, Tullius and Ally have accounted for six each. Penniman currently stands with four on the year and McLarty has a total of two first place finishes this season.
The Florida women will be represented by Caroline Burckle (Louisville, Ky.), Laurabeth Guenthner (Wellington, Fla.), Liz Kemp (Potomac, Md.), Kim Larson (Longwood, Fla.), Stephanie Napier (Chattanooga, Tenn.), Natalie Pike (Boca Raton, Fla.) and Gemma Spofforth (West Sussex, England). All seven swimmers appeared at Nationals this summer, setting several personal and UF records.
Between the seven women, Florida has earned a total of 46 first place finishes, both individually and combined on relay teams. Burckle, who was named the Southeastern Conference Swimmer of the Week for her performance following the Gators' first two meets of the season in October, leads the way with 20 total top times.
Former Gators Vipa Bernhardt, Ryan Lochte and Ricardo Monasterio will also be swimming this weekend.
Those wishing to follow the action at Nationals can do so by going to www.swimnetwork.com. Results as they happen can be found at www.usaswimming.org.
