No. 9 Gators Fall Short Versus No. 12 Volunteers in Season Finale

Saturday, February 1

Knoxville, TN

10:00 AM

Florida Gators

144

156

#12 Tennessee

Khader Baqlah posted two new season-best swims and earned three second-place finishes in Knoxville on Saturday.

No. 9 Gators Fall Short Versus No. 12 Volunteers in Season Finale

Saturday, February 1, 2020 | Men's Swimming & Diving

By: Ryan Sosic

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The No. 9 University of Florida men's swimming and diving team fell short to No. 12 Tennessee in their 2019-20 season finale at the Jones Aquatic Center on Saturday.

In the 156-144 loss, the Gators earned seven event wins and posted five new season-best swims.

For the second consecutive week, this week's Southeastern Conference Men's Swimmer of the Week Kieran Smith led Florida with a three event wins. He would sweep the distance competition, while adding a 200 free victory as well.

Smith's 1,000 free swim of 9:01.86 was almost ten seconds faster than the second-place finisher and was a new personal-best by almost five full seconds. His 500 free time, which beat the rest of the field by almost six seconds, was also a new best effort as a Gator (4:18.13).

Florida would claim the top-three places in the 400 IM as Grant Sanders placed first with his effort of 3:51.61. Kevin Vargas (3:54.01) and Miguel Cancel (3:54.23) finished behind him in second and third, respectively.

The final individual event wins were posted by Clark Beach in the 200 back (1:43.70) and in the 200 breast by Marco Guarente (1:58.52).

The relay of Will Davis, Smith, Khader Baqlah and Eric Friese closed out the dual season with a 200 free victory with the top combined swim of 1:1870. Smith led the way with his split of 19.48.

After Smith's back-to-victories wins to start off the meet, the Volunteers put together a key stretch of the meet, firing off six straight event wins before Clark Beach's 200 back victory.

Overall, Tennessee was led by Alec Connolly and Kayky Mota, who each posted two individual event wins. Matt Wade posted two wins as well, winning both events on the diving board.

Gators Splashes

Coming off a victory in the 500 free last weekend, Baqlah hit the wall as a runner-up in the 100, 200 and 500 free. His efforts in the 100 and 200 free would notch his top swims this season in the respective events.
A trio of runner-up bids were earned by Sanders (200 breast), Will Davis (50 free) and Eric Friese (100 fly).
In their addition to their event wins, Clark Beach also finished second in the 100 back with a time of 48.50 and Guarente placed third in the 100 breast with an effort of 54.41.
In the 500 free, Matthew Anderson would go on to beat his previous top swim set last week against Auburn with his fourth-place finish with his effort of 4:28.75. He also added a third-place finish in the 1,000 free.
Cancel, Isaac Davis and Ethan Beach each tallied new season-bests with their third-place finishes in Knoxville. Cancel shaved almost a full second of his 200 fly time that won him the same event last weekend against Auburn, and Ethan Beach hit the wall in 1:46.62, .27 seconds faster than his previous top 200 back swim. Isaac Davis finished the 100 fly in 48.15, beating out his previous best by .05 seconds.
On the diving board, Alex Farrow posted a runner-up bid in the 3-meter board with a score of 361.20, while finishing in third (289.58) on the 1-meter. Nick Lydon was the other Gator diver to perform, posting a pair of fourth-place finishes in both events.

Series History

Florida now holds a 26-20 all-time against Tennessee. The loss snaps a 11-meet win streak that dated back to the 2007-08 season when the Volunteers won by a final score of 160-140.

From 1995-2002, the Volunteers won every meet against the Gators, with that streak snapping in 2002-03.

Quotables

Head coach Anthony Nesty- "The men fought hard against Tennessee today. We were a bit compromised in our line up due to the sudden illness among a couple of our men upon arrival to Tennessee. Despite this, our men competed with tenacity and we are extremely proud of them. They handled adversity with tremendous focus and strength. The team unity was superior and much was learned from the experience. I want to thank our Support Staff and Administrative Staff for their loyal support. We press forward! Go Gators!"

Head diving coach Bryan Gillooly- "I'm very happy for the divers today. Not only for the way they dove in the actual competition, the results were great, but they had some really great practices as well. Even the dives that weren't great in the meet were what I like to call "good misses". Meaning that the technique and mechanics were what we are looking for. Overall, they competed very well. The whole team is unified and strong. Going into postseason, I am confident that our preparation has been as good as possible."

Looking Ahead

Florida will now head to Auburn, Ala. on Feb. 7-9 for the Auburn Last Chance Invitational.

The Gators will then prepare for championship season before heading right back to Auburn for the SEC Championships on Feb. 18-22. Last season, the team won its seventh-straight conference title with 1,233 points over the four-day competition.

After SEC's, the divers will head to NCAA Diving Zones on March 9-11 and the team will come back together for the final time of the season when they compete at the 2020 NCAA Championships on March 25-28 in Indianapolis, Ind.

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