Florida Swimming Adds Five New Faces During Late Signing Period
Thursday, May 1, 2008 | General
The University of Florida Swimming and Diving Program added another five athletes to its list of signees during the late signing period, picking up three swimmers and two divers to go along with the 28 athletes that signed during the early signing period to give the Gators 33 new faces next season.
Swimmers Gabriel Hven (Coracos, Venezuela), Marco Loughran (London, England) and Maida Turndzic (Cape Coral, Fla.) join divers Colin Bell (Coral Springs, Fla.) and Kaylee Doback (Dover, Fla.) as the final signees for the Class of 2008, bringing Florida's total to 33 for the fall season.
Hven will arrive in Gainesville with four national records and an 11th place showing at the World youth Swimming Championships in the 100-meter butterfly in 2006. The incoming freshman is a seven-time CCCAN Mexico '03 medalist, a five-time medalist at the South American games in Chile in 2004 and a five-time medalist at the CCCAN games in San Salvador in 2007. He also picked up four more medals at the South American games in 2007, this time in Venezuela.
Loughran comes to the Gators with four Olympic qualifying times and after winning one gold and three silver medals at the European Juniors meet in 2007. The incoming freshman also picked up a silver at the same meet in 2005 and a bronze in 2006. Loughran also holds several Welsh and British Age group records.
Turnadzic will join the Gator women after spending four years with the Cape Coral High School swim team where she won four varsity letters. The new Gator was a four year state qualifier and a silver medalist at the state championships in both 2005 and 2007 in the 100 fly. Turnadzic is also a two-time NICSA All-American and was named to the News-Press All-Area Team each of her scholastic years. She holds eight high school records, two conference records and was named the Cape Coral team MVP for four straight years. The incoming freshman was also the recipient of the Al Oerter Award from Lee County for a Drug Free Southwest Florida.
The Gators will get a lift on the diving boards with the addition of Bell and Doback. Bell was the 2008 Wendy Wyland Platform Champion, an event that he also won in 2007 to go along with wins on the one and three-meter boards. He was the 2007 Florida high school state 3A runner-up on the one-meter spring board, earned first-team All-Broward County from the Sun Sentinel and is a two-time NISCA high school All-American diver on the one-meter. In 2007, Bell also came away from the David Nielson Diving Invitational as the one and three-meter springboard champion. He is the 2006 National Grassroots Invitational champion on the one meter and platform and is the 2005 USA-Canada Junior Challenge Silver medalist on platform. In 2006, Bell joined the United States Diving team on a trip to China to train and tour in Beijing and Xian.
Doback will join a women's diving team that had one of its best season's to date. She comes to Gainesville as a six-time national qualifier and 2007 state bronze medalist. A three-time regional champion, four-time district champion, three-time western conference champion and three-time all-county diver, Doback was a four-time team MVP. She holds three high school records and is a 2006 All-Academic athlete that will graduate in the top two-percent of her graduating class.
Each athlete will join a Florida program that saw the women's team finish sixth and the men's team finish eighth at this year's NCAA Championships.
