Trio of Wins Caps Off Second Day For No. 8 Gators at Auburn Invitational

Saturday, February 8

Auburn, AL

All Day

Florida Gators

Auburn Last Chance Invitational

Celi Guzman picked up her first victory of the season on Saturday night.

Trio of Wins Caps Off Second Day For No. 8 Gators at Auburn Invitational

Saturday, February 8, 2020 | Women's Swimming & Diving

By: Ryan Sosic

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – A trio of Florida swimmers posted event victories to lead the No. 8 Gators during the second finals session of the Auburn Invitational at the James E. Martin Aquatics Center.

Celi Guzman (100 fly), Kelsey Dambacher (200 free) and Adrianna DeBoer (100 breast) would each post individual wins during Saturday night's finals session.

Guzman won the 100 fly final with a new personal-best swim of 53.97. She shaved off .88 seconds from her morning effort, as well as .36 seconds off her previous best.

Dambacher's win came in the 200 free, registering a new season-best swim of 1:48.52 in the finals. She took off .69 seconds off her previous season-best, which was set in the Saturday morning prelims.

The third and final win earned by DeBoer was also in season-best fashion. Her finals effort of 1:02.11 dropped .50 seconds from her morning swim, which also was the top time in the event.

In addition to Dambacher, four additional Gators competed in the 200 free, as three would also set season-best swims. Kirschtine Balbuena posted a fourth-place finish (1:50.12), with Bettina Boszormenyi (1:50.89) and Ria Malhotra (1:51.00) finishing behind her in fifth and sixth, respectively. The final finisher was Kalie Novosedliak, who finished in eighth with a new season-best time of 1:51.23.

Liz Watts and Madison Conway joined Guzman in the 100 fly final. Watts would post a sixth-place finish in the finals, while posting her best swim of the day in the prelims with an effort of 57.19.

Conway, who posted the seventh-best swim in the prelims with her effort of 57.05, competed in the event for the first time this season.

Ellie Zweifel earned season-best swims in both 100 breast sessions, highlighted by second-place finish behind DeBoer in the evening session. Her best swim was posted in the finals, posting a time of 1:30.05.

Balbuena led a group of three Gators in the 100 back with her third-place finish in the finals. Her time of 55.56 was a new season-best. Boszormenyi finished in 11th, while Conway touched in 57.07, a new season-best.

Boszormenyi's best time in the event was set in the prelims, finishing in 56.93.

The lone Gator in the 400 IM, Ellie Hatton, claimed a third-place finish after shaving off 1.29 seconds off her prelim time, touching the wall in 4:30.81.

What's Next

The group heads back into the pool at the Martin Aquatics Center on Sunday, beginning at 10:30 a.m. with the preliminary rounds. The finals will get pushed up to 3:00 p.m.

Florida will then travel right back to Auburn for the 2020 SEC Championships from Feb. 18-22. Last season, the Gators posted a second-place finish, its best conference nod since 2011.

Sunday Schedule