Jack Blyzinskyj and Ashlee Linn combined to sweep the 200 back titles in impressive times as Florida won its 6th-straight team title at the All-Florida Invite.
Blyzinskyj, a junior, capped off what was a great weekend for him with a backstroke sweep, taking the 200 back a day after winning the 100. Blyzinskyj went 1:45.81, which is the top time in the nation for this young season. That topped Florida State’s Connor Kalisz by almost a second.
Linn, meanwhile, won the women’s version of the event in 1:57.39, beating the field by over two seconds. Florida went 1-2-3 in that race, with freshman Sydney Sell nabbing second and Georgia-Mae Hohmann third.
Caeleb Dressel continued to impress, blasting a 43.17 to win the 100 free. That’s a great early-season swim for Dressel, who was the NCAA’s 50 free champion last season, but missed the A final in the 100-yard distance.
His female counterpart Natalie Hinds won the women’s race for Florida. Hinds dipped under 50 seconds twice over the course of the day, going 49.49 in prelims and 49.76 to win the final.
Florida cleaned up, with wins in 10 of 12 swimming events. The only two wins to sneak out to other Florida schools came late in the meet.
Nova Southeastern’s Anton Lobanov took home the men’s 200 breast, a pretty unsurprising win. Lobanov was the Division II NCAA champion last season, and owns the national record in Division II. He was 2:01.05 here, well off his record, but still enough to win by over two seconds.
Just one men’s event later, Cole Hensley picked up Florida State’s only swimming win of the night, going 1:48.74 in the 200 fly. He had to fight off a charging Austin Mangianiello, but beat out the Florida senior by just a tenth.
The closest race of the night saw Florida sophomore Paige Scheriger run down and touch out Towson’s Jenna Van Camp in the 200 breast. Scheriger went 2:17.18, outsplitting Van Camp by a half-second over the final 50 to take the win. Van Camp was just two one-hundredths behind in 2:17.20.
Other event winners on the night:
- Mitch D’Arrigo won the men’s 1650, going 15:31.83 and leading a 1-2-3 Florida sweep.
- The women’s mile went to Jess Thielmann, who should be among the nation’s best distance swimmers this year after a breakout junior season. Thielmann went 16:47.09.
- Taylor Katz won the 200 fly for Florida, going 2:00.86 and winning by almost two and a half seconds.
- Linn and Hinds joined forces with Elisavet Panti and Amelia Maughan to win the 400 free relay for Florida in 3:22.50, with Hinds splitting a quick 48.97.
- Pawel Werner, Dressel, Mark Szaranek and Corey Main took the men’s relay, with Dressel splitting 43.23 and Main 43.56. The team went 2:56.28.
Full results from all three days of the meet available here
Final Team Scores
Men
- Florida – 1080
- Florida State – 829.5
- Towson – 684.5
- Nova Southeastern – 590
Women
- Florida – 1056
- Florida State – 779
- Towson – 602.5
- Florida Gulf Coast – 578.5
- Miami – 509
- Nova Southeastern – 213
Isn’t 43.1 about a second faster than Dressel went at NCAAs in finals and leading off the prelims relay?
Hopefully this bodes well for the rest of the season. He swam really well for this early in the season.
That 2:56.28 was faster than Florida swam at any dual meet all of last year, and they got 2 flat start 43s (Dressel 43.1 and Main 43.9) in the 100 free today as well. It is SEPTEMBER. I’m really excited to see how the season progresses. All that long course training they’re doing certainly isn’t hurting their short course speed. GO GATORS!
That 100 freestyle definitely stole the show for the last day. Dressel is for sure swimmer of the meet (as if we are surprised) but Blyzinskyj did have an awesome 100 backstroke. In order of impressiveness- CD 100 free, JB 100 Back, CD 50 free, CD 200IM. Sorry if missed another stand out event, those ones I just thought were the best.
One thing that is really beginning to piss me off, is people who are yelling at Dressel for keeping variety in his program- looking at you Bobo Gigi. Many swimmers, once they reach a certain level view swimming as their job and the love for the sport fades. We have seen time and time again especially with… Read more »