Medley Relay Jump Starts Gators on Day Two in Atlanta

Saturday, November 23

All Day

Florida Gators

Georgia Tech Invitational

Sherridon Dressel swam the seventh-fastest 100 fly swim in Florida history with a new personal-best time of 52.52.

Medley Relay Jump Starts Gators on Day Two in Atlanta

Saturday, November 23, 2019 | Women's Swimming & Diving

By: Ryan Sosic

Full Day Two Results

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The No. 1 University of Florida swimming and diving team got a jump start from the 200 medley relay team to remain in first-place after the second day of the Georgia Tech Invitational.

The Gators remained the leader through the conclusion of day two with an overall tally of 872 points. North Carolina sits behind Florida with 714.5 points entering the final day on Sunday.

For the second consecutive day, the Gators began the finals session with a historic feat as the 200 medley relay of Emma Ball, Kelly Fertel, Sherridon Dressel and Talia Bates posted the fourth-fastest relay in UF history with their combined A-cut swim of 1:36.71. Bates hit the fastest split, anchoring the relay with a 50 free swim of 21.88.

The 200 free finals was Gators-heavy, as the team posted six of the top-ten final times. Leah Braswell finished as the runner-up with a swim of 1:47.10 after posting a B-cut and personal-best swim in the prelims. Jillian Hatch, Tori Bindi and Kathleen Golding would round-out the top five in the finals.

Kelly Fertel walked away with her second individual victory in Atlanta, winning the Gator-filled 400 IM final with a swim of 4:07.58. Teammates Savanna Faulconer and Kathleen Golding would round-out the top-three swims, including Golding hitting a new personal-best time of 4:10.24. Heading into today, her previous best was 4:19.07.

Sherridon Dressel qualified for A-final of the 100 fly with a swim of 52.52, a new personal-best and the seventh-fastest time by a Gator ever.

Ashley McCool paced Florida's 3-meter diving efforts in the evening final. The junior would tally an overall score of 349.15, 4.37 points higher than her previous personal-best against Missouri and good for a second-place finish.

Gators Splashes

Ball (second-place) and Dressel (third-place) finished at the top of the leaderboard in the 100 back with a pair of B-cuts. The pair both are slotted in the top-10 program times with their personal-bests set earlier in their Florida careers.
- In the final, Bates would also notch a B-cut and set another personal-best with her time of 53.68, .46 seconds faster than her prelim time.
- In the preliminaries, Celi Guzman (54.12) also registered a personal-best.
The 100 fly was one of the most successful events for the Gators in the morning session as the group posted six new lifetime-best swims and sent four swimmers into the Saturday night finals along with Dressel.
- Bates, Celi Guzman, Jillian Hatch, Nikki Miller and Allie Piccirillo all posted lifetime-best times in the preliminaries.
Nikki Miller and Bella Garofalo matched the success of their teammates in the 200 free. In the finals, Miller would hit a new personal-best time with a swim of 1:48.08. In the prelims, Garofalo hit the wall in 1:47.95, besting her previous best by .96 seconds.
Elizabeth Perez and Abigail Howell joined McCool on the 3-meter. Perez posted a seventh-place finish and Howell closed out Gator finishers with a 10th-place nod.
In the 400 IM prelims, Piccirillo dropped her lifetime best in the event by a total of six seconds, while Rosie Zavaros also shaved off a full second.
Tylor Mathieu would drop .39 seconds off her lifetime-best 100 breast swim that she set in the morning prelims. Her finals of swim of 1:02.88 gave her a 14th-place nod. Adrianna DeBoer and Ellie Zweifel would also qualify for the finals in the event.

Relay Magic

Florida wrapped up day two with a sixth-place finish in the 800 free relay.

Braswell, Hatch, Garofalo , Dressel combined for a swim of 7:16.96, with Hatch producing the top split of 1:47.93.

Quotables

Head coach Jeff Poppell- "Overall, I think the women did a nice job racing today. We had some athletes with tough doubles that gave great efforts. Looking forward to ending the meet with a strong last day tomorrow."

Head diving coach Bryan Gillooly- "We had a rough start yesterday with only Elizabeth advancing to the final. Today was a test of their ability to rebound from a subpar performance. Getting three into the final showed a lot of heart. Ashley finishing second in her first three meter event back from injury was a bonus. I'm really proud of how things are going this first half of the season. They are competing as a team and supporting each other, which makes a big difference on a day like today."

Scores After Day Two

Team (Place)	Points
Florida (1st)	872
North Carolina (2nd)	714.5
Alabama (3rd)	597
South Carolina (4th)	370
Florida State (5th)	361.5
Georgia Tech (6th)	304
East Carolina (7th)	231
Utah (8th)	224
Georgia Southern (9th)	102
Virginia (10th)	92

Sunday Schedule of Events

Event 29- Women's 1650 Free
Event 30- Men's 1650 Free
Event 31- Women's 200 Back
Event 32- Men's 200 Back
Event 33- Women's 100 Free
Event 34- Men's 100 Free
Event 35- Women's 200 Breast
Event 36- Men's 200 Breast
Event 37- Women's 200 Fly
Event 38- Men's 200 Fly
Event 39- Women's Platform Diving
Event 40- Men's Platform Diving
Event 41- Women's 400 Free Relay
Event 42- Men's 400 Free Relay

What's Next

Sunday will mark the third and final day of the Gators' time in Atlanta, with the competition serving as the swimmer's final time in the pool in 2019.

Florida's divers will compete in the Auburn Diving Invitational in Alabama on Dec. 17-19.

The Gators will have a nice break before coming back to the O'Connell Center Natatorium when they welcome Auburn on Jan. 25. The meet will serve as Senior Day and the final home dual of the season.

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