UF Finishes First Day of All-Florida Invitational in Lead

Friday, September 23

Fort Lauderdale, FL

All Day

Florida Gators

All-Florida Invitational

In their first meet under new diving coach Bryan Gillooly, the Florida divers swept the 1-meter and 3-meter titles at the All-Florida Invitational.

UF Finishes First Day of All-Florida Invitational in Lead

Friday, September 23, 2016 | Men's Swimming & Diving, Women's Swimming & Diving

The Gators captured eight individual and two relay titles

By: Layne Weitzel

DAY 1 FINALS RESULTS | DAY 1 PRELIMS RESULTS
MEET TIMELINE | MEET HOMEPAGE | MEET NOTES

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – After one day of competition, Florida looks to be well on its way to earning its seventh-straight All-Florida Invitational title.

The Gators hold a commanding lead for both the men's and women's team title races, with the men's team totaling 388 points and the women's team collecting 385 points so far.

Freshman Kay Sargent took home her first two collegiate individual titles and 40 points for the Gator women, winning both the 500 free (4:56.99) and 200 IM (2:04.49). Another freshman, Sherridon Dressel, was tops in the 50 free (23.62). In the diving well, Teya Syskakis rounded out the scoring for the women with the 1-meter (259.43) title, while redshirt freshman Miranda Goss took the 3-meter.

Mark Szaranek collected the lone individual swimming event win for the Florida men, the 200 IM (1:49.94), and Samuel Smith won both the 1-meter (338.03) and 3-meter (350.18) diving titles as well. Smith achieved 2017 NCAA Championships qualifying standards on both dives in earning over 300 points on the 1-meter and over 320 points on the 3-meter.

For relays, Florida swept the 400 medley relay titles. The women's A-team of Emma Ball, Dani Keymont, Alyssa Yambor-Maul and Sherridon Dressel posted a 3:51.25 finals time, while the men's B-team of Bayley Main, Marco Guarente, Ben Kennedy and Ben Lawless put up a 3:24.24.

UF also gathered a number of points from other top three finishes. The women totaled two second-place and five third-place rankings, and the men had five second-place and six third-place finishes.

TROY'S TAKE
"It was a good first day. We had quite a few of the freshmen stand up and race well. There was good spirit and focus for the first meet."

GILLOOLY'S TAKE
"We're viewing this more as a training trip at this point of the season, so it was just what we were looking for. It was a great first meet for a couple of the divers. There's nothing like a competition setting, no matter who's in it, to really spotlight areas that we can improve on. We have time now to do that, go back to the drawing board on what we learned here and be ready for our first dual-meet."

Diving has concluded for the invitational, but the swimming events continue Saturday with prelims beginning at 9 a.m. Live results can be found on the Meet Mobile app (available on the iTunes App Store or Google Play) or on Twitter at @GatorsSwimDv and also are posted at the conclusion of each day's competition on FloridaGators.com. Nova Southeastern has provided a streaming link of each finals session here.

TEAM SCORES & RANKINGS
Men
1. Florida (388)
2. Nova Southeastern (273)
3. Keiser (197)

Women
1. Florida (385)
2. Florida Gulf Coast (343)
3. Miami (FL) [190]
4. Nova Southeastern (178)
5. Keiser (13)

MEET SCHEDULE
Saturday, Sept. 24
Prelims: 9 a.m. – 10:13 a.m.
Finals: 5 p.m. – 6:42 p.m.

Sunday, Sept. 25
Prelims: 9 a.m. – 10:52 a.m.
Finals: 4 p.m. – 5:41 p.m.

FOLLOW THE GATORS
FloridaGators.com
Twitter
Instagram
Facebook