Head Coach Gregg Troy Previewed Friday's Meet at Georgia
Monday, October 25, 2010 | Men's Swimming & Diving
University of Florida head coach Gregg Troy addressed the media Monday morning as part of the Gators' All-Sports Media Day.
Coach Troy talked about Friday's meet against Georgia that begins at 11 a.m. in Athens, when the team is expected to be back at full strength after having multiple swimmers return from the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
He then talked about facing a tough Georgia team on the road (Georgia is the defending SEC Champion on the women's side) and keeping with the Florida-Georgia theme for this week, as both program's football team's square off this weekend, as well.
Coach Troy also discussed and fielded questions about Georgia's depth in the distance events and on how Florida will have to overcome being down early in the meet as a result. He also addressed the unexpected and tragic passing of Teresa Crippen's brother.
TRANSCRIPT:
Opening Statement:
“We wrapped up two weeks of pretty good training since the Virginia meet. It finished a great training cycle for us, and we get to finish it with a great competition versus Georgia this week. It's always good to swim on the Florida-Georgia football weekend. It's a little added intensity. It's their first home meet. They (Georgia) split last week – their men lost to a very good North Carolina team in a close meet and the women handled a very good North Carolina women's team very easily. It presents some unique challenges. It's the first time we've traveled with a lot of freshmen. The last couple of weeks have been a little bit of a challenge. We've had some nagging injuries where it seems like we're going three steps backwards. It seems like we have pesky problems every week when we come back. We have a great group with great resiliency. We're seeing probably the best women's team in the country in Georgia. We haven't fared too well against them in dual meets the last couple of years. It's always a good competition and it's hard fought. We're looking forward to a great competition this weekend.”
On Georgia's long-distance swimmers:
“We're probably in the same situation again (as last year). We have some ladies that can swim with Georgia in the distance events, but unfortunately they're our best swimmers in some other places. They (Georgia) are extremely deep there and put you in a hole right away. They (Georgia) start with three world-class athletes in the distance freestyle. We're going to do some things to break that up, but it certainly presents a different challenge to start the meet. They're deep and talented everywhere. It's a great way to start your first traveling meet, because you're going to see a lot of what you'll see at the end of the year. It's going to be a good experience.”
On junior Teresa Crippen:
“We don't expect her to be here this weekend. It's a very tragic situation. They're an extremely close family. The whole (Florida) team is certainly dealing with it. It was a loss for a lot of them, even some on the men's team. A couple of our guys traveled on a regular basis with Fran (Crippen), who was a class act. They're a wonderful family. We don't expect to have Teresa back for awhile. We're all doing what we can to work with family and help them any way possible.”
On getting ready for Georgia:
“We took advantage of the Virginia meet and swimming a great team like Virginia. The men's side we evaluated where we were weak. We've had the good fortune of getting three athletes back (Brett Fraser, Marco Loughran and Sebastien Rousseau) that we didn't have for that (Virginia) meet because they were swimming at the Commonwealth Games. All three are real players. We're trying to see where people can swim and put more focus on improving on some things and our fitness level. We're trying to regroup a little bit. We lost one athlete on the male side due to an unfortunate accident. On the women's side, we had a great first meet against Virginia. We're real pleased with where everything is. We're trying to get little things together and just move forward, trying to get better as the year goes on.”
The Gators return to the pool for their SEC opener next Friday, Oct. 29, when they travel to SEC rival Georgia. Meet time is scheduled for 11 a.m. Gator fans are encouraged to follow the swimming and diving program via Twitter or Facebook.
