2010 NCAAs: Day One Prelims Session
Friday, March 26, 2010 | Men's Swimming & Diving
The Florida men's swimming team kicked off the first day of the 2010 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships with prelims from the McCorkle Aquatics Pavilion Friday morning in Columbus after a 24-hour meet delay Thursday. Led by stellar swims from junior Conor Dwyer (Winnetka, Ill.) and senior Shaune Fraser (George Town, Grand Cayman), the Gators qualified four individual swims and both the 200-yard free and 400-yard medley relays for Friday evening Finals.
Dwyer recorded the top seed in the 500-yard freestyle, clocking a 4:15.20 McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion record, while Fraser solidified the second-place spot in the 200-yard individual medley (1:43.21). Junior Balazs Gercsak (Budapest, Hungary) will join Dwyer in the 500 after securing sixth (4:16.76) in the distance event, while senior Omar Pinzon (Bogota, Colombia) swam to a fifth-place preliminary finish in the 200-yard IM (1:43.47) to qualify for the championship final beside Fraser with a career-best swim in the race.
Both Florida relays swam their way to the championship finals as well, with the team of Brett Fraser (George Town, Grand Cayman), Shaune Fraser, Matt Norton (Port Orange, Fla.) and senior Roberto Gomez (Weston, Fla.) cruising to a sixth-place 1:17.64, the second-fastest time in Florida history in the first event of the meet.
In the final event of the morning session, Florida's 400-yard medley relay, composed of redshirt freshman Marco Loughran (London, England), Dwyer and both Frasers, the Gators clocked in at 3:05.88, the third-fastest in UF history, to enter finals in second place behind the distance medley relay team from California.
In other preliminary action, Norton clocked a career-best 19.95 in the 50-yard free, going under the 20-second mark, while UF captain, Gomez, clocked a 19.88, three-hundredths shy of a career-best set at last year's NCAAs.
Sophomore Jeff Raymond (Davie, Fla.), senior Roland Rudolf (Budapest, Hungary) and junior Joey Pedraza (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) placed 26th, 43rd and 44th, respectively, in the 500-yard free prelims and freshman Sebastien Rousseau (Cape Town, South Africa) clocked a 1:46.03 to finish 33rd in the field in the 200-yard IM.
Florida fans can follow a live stream and receive live results from finals on the Ohio State University campus by visiting here.
The Gators will return to finals at 7 p.m. Friday evening. A recap and results will be posted on www.GatorZone.com following the conclusion of the evening session.
FRIDAY PRELIMINARIES RESULTS
Florida Record – F
Career Best Mark – *
Pool Record – P
200-yard freestyle relay
6. Fraser (B), Fraser (S), Norton, Gomez: 1:17.64
500-yard freestyle
1. Conor Dwyer: 4:15.20 P
6. Balazs Gercsak: 4:16.76
26. Jeff Raymond: 4:21.12
43. Roland Rudolf: 4:25.63
44. Joey Pedraza: 4:25.69
200-yard individual medley
2. Shaune Fraser: 1:43.21
5. Omar Pinzon: 1:42.47 *
33. Sebastien Rousseau: 1:46.03
50-yard freestyle
30. Roberto Gomez: 19.88
35. Matt Norton: 19.95 *
400-yard medley relay
2. Loughran, Dwyer, Fraser (S), Fraser (B): 3:05.88
-UF-
