Florida Takes to the Pool at Florida State Tuesday
Monday, November 24, 2008 | Men's Swimming & Diving
As a part of traditional Rivalry Week, the No. 5 Gator women (3-2, 2-1 SEC) and No. 6 UF men (3-1, 3-0 SEC) will travel west for a swimming and diving match-up with in-state rival Florida State Tuesday. Meet time is slated for 5 p.m. from the Bobby E. Leach Center. The Gator men will take to the water against the No. 20-ranked Seminole squad, while the women will face an unranked FSU women's team.
The Orange and Blue enter the Florida State rivalry meet in Tallahassee after a two-week idle period. The Gators have used the time off as a training springboard for the remainder of the season.
“We have had great leadership from our seniors during our three-week training period,” head coach Gregg Troy said Monday. “We are pleased with our freshmen. The next two weeks will be tough and will be a great chance for us to see where we're at this point in the season. We'll be racing tired against Florida State, but our freshmen will get to see where they stack up against the good competition in FSU.”
UF was last in action Nov. 8 against SEC rival South Carolina. Both squads were victorious against the Gamecocks, with the men moving to 3-1 overall (3-0 SEC) and the women improving to 3-2 (2-1 SEC). The FSU road-trip will be Florida's third road meet of the season. Both the Gator men and women are 2-1 in road meets this season so far. The men surrendered a victory to Michigan, while the women fell to the then-No. 3 Stanford Cardinal.
UF and FSU will meet for the 72nd time in the history of the men's series Tuesday, while the women will take to the water for the 38th time overall with their archrival in Tallahassee. The Gators and Seminoles meet annually as part of the in-state rivalry between UF and FSU. The two teams last met Nov. 20, 2007 in Gainesville at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center. The Gators walked away with victories on both the men's and women's side, with the men taking away a 155-88 victory and the women capturing a 169-74 decision.
Florida holds the all-time advantage over Florida State in the in-state rivalry series, 48-22-1, in men's action. On the women's side, the Lady Gators also have the all-time edge over the Lady Seminoles, 36-1.
Both Seminole swimming squads were last in action Nov. 15 in double-dual action with ACC rival Virginia and the Penn State Nittany Lions. The FSU men's squad (6-1, 2-1 ACC) pulled off an upset against then No. 15 ranked Penn State, winning, 225.5-127.5,on the road in Charlottesville, Va., but surrendered a197-154 decision to No. 12 Virginia. The Lady Seminoles (7-3, 2-1 ACC) suffered two losses in Charlottesville, dropping a 216-129 decision against No. 13 Virginia and by a score of 207-146 to the then No. 19 Nittany Lions.
Several Gators have already hit NCAA time cuts on the season, just a small indication of the success UF should experience in the spring. Nine individual members of the women's
team have secured NCAA B standards, including four divers with Zone Diving Championship cuts. On the men's side, Gator Balazs Gercsak raced to a B cut in the 500-yard free against Georgia, while freshman diver Anthony Lewark has hit qualifying marks on both the one and three-meter boards for Zones.
Women:
Jeana Bartell (1Meter)
Teresa Crippen (400 IM)
Monica Dodson (1Meter & 3Meter)
Laurabeth Guenthner (500 & 1650 free)
Stephanie Napier (50 free)
Kara Salamone (1Meter & 3Meter)
Gemma Spoff orth (100 & 200 back)
Shara Staff ord (100 back)
Whitney Stern (1Meter
400 free relay
400 medley relay
Men:
Balazs Gercsak (500 free)
Anthony Lewark (1Meter & 3Meter)
Welcome to Florida!
This past week, Troy announced the signing of 10 future Gators, including three women's newcomers and seven men's additions. The following swimmers will join the Orange and Blue in Gainesville for the 2009-10 season:
Women:
Jamie Bohunicky
Eva Lehtonen
Corinne Showalter
Men:
Ben Correll
Csaba Gercsak
Eric Moore
John Orban
Scott Sommer
Jason Taylor
Evan Wollman
Log on to www.GatorZone.com for a meet recap and complete results from the Florida-Florida State showdown Tuesday.
-UF-
