Florida Welcomes Georgia for Home Opener on Friday

Courtesy: Florida Athletics

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The Gators will welcome the Georgia Bulldogs for their home opener on Nov. 1. inside the Stephen C. O’Connell Center Natatorium at 11:00 a.m.

The matchup will be made available through ESPN’s SEC Network + and the MeetMobile app.

Off to their best start since the 2003-04 season, the Gators have outscored their opponent 995.5-491.5 and have posted 16 top-five conference swims.

The Gators have been led in the pool by Sherridon Dressel, Vanessa Pearl and Leah Braswell as the trio has all posted seven individual victories this season.

Ashley McCool had led Florida’s diving efforts as the transfer has won nine-of-ten events, including sweeping the diving events in the last four meets and posting the top 3-meter score in the SEC against Missouri.

Series History
The Gators and Bulldogs have competed against each other 19 times since 1998, with the 2001-02 and 2000-01 seasons being the only time the programs didn’t race against each other.

Overall, the Bulldogs lead the all-time series with the Gators 16-3. The Gators broke their 11-meet losing streak against UGA last season with their 158-142 win in Athens against the No. 11 Bulldogs.

Looking at the Bulldogs

The Bulldogs head into Gainesville with an overall record of 3-0 as the program has started off the new year with dual wins over Alabama, North Carolina and Duke.

Against Alabama in their opener, the team was led by Courtney Harnish, who picked up victories in the 200 and 500 free, and freshman Zoie Hartman, who also picked up two individual victories.

In back-to-back meets with North Carolina and Duke, the Bulldogs outscored their opponents 336-264.

Hartman has received SEC Freshman of the Week accolades twice this season while Harnish earned Swimmer of the Week for her performance in their opening meet with the Crimson Tide.

Quotables
Head coach Jeff Poppell– “We are looking forward to a great matchup against Georgia,  arguably one of the most successful women’s teams over the last decade. Their team is always extremely tough and we expect it to be a closely contested meet this year as it was last year.”

Head Diving coach Bryan Gillooly – “We are really looking forward to our first meet here at the O’Connell Center. The team competitions should be pretty close so diving can play a really important role. Although we will be without a few of our divers, who are coming back from some minor injuries, we have four strong divers who are really starting to come into form. I am anxious to see who will step up to the challenge.”

Looking Ahead
UF will be back in action at the O’Dome the following Friday for their second consecutive home meet as they host Florida State in the annual Fresh From Florida Sunshine Showdown.

The Gators will finish off 2019 with the Georgia Tech Invitational on Nov. 22-24. The divers will then travel to Auburn to compete in the Auburn Diving Invite on Dec. 17-19.