The Florida women continued to open up a huge margin on day 2 of the All-Florida invite, while the Florida State men kept the meet competitive, though the Gator men still have a comfortable lead in the meet.
Elizabeth Beisel added another event victory to her two individual wins on the first day of competition when she touched first in the women’s 100 back in 55.04, which is nearly identical to her leadoff swim from the 400 medley relay yesterday. Sarah Bateman and Teresa Crippen touched 2nd and 3rd in 55.74 and 55.75.
Beisel showed her first chink by taking 2nd-place in the 200 free (1:48.05), but at least the upset was pulled off by a teammate: Jamie Bohunicky (1:47.98). Freshman Natasha Fung showed her first flashes of potential in her short Florida career with a 3rd-place finish in that race in 1:50.15.
There is an interesting nugget to mine out of Beisel’s event schedule on the 2nd day. Head coach Gregg Troy decided not to enter her in the 400 IM, which is an event where she’s the defending World Champion. She’s probably pretty confident that she’s ready to take on the season in that race without needing much of a benchmark time from this first meet, but this could be a small insight into Florida’s concerns with their roster. Though Beisel’s primary goal has to be the Olympic Trials in June, in college competition, Florida needs to work out some relays. That might be what led to Beisel swimming two “relay” events (100 back, 200 free) instead of the “non-relay” 400 IM in today’s event schedule.
In her absence in the 400 IM, the more-than-capable Teresa Crippen put up a 4:13.24 to take a huge win. That’s roughly six-seconds faster than she went at this same meet last year.
Shortly after that race, Crippen would come back to take 2nd in the 100 fly in 55.08. That time was impressive based on a quick turnaround, but winner Sarah Bateman’s time of 53.76 was impressive based on the early time of year. That’s within three-tenths of a second of her taper time from NCAA’s last year.
In the 200 medley relay, Florida swam a good, but not spectacular, time of 1:42.63. In that same race, Florida Gulf Coast gave them a bit of a challenge to finish 2nd in 1:43.37. This 200 medley relay is FGCU’s best event, and could be responsible for their first-ever invite to the NCAA Championships if they continue to trend upwards. They’ve got a great backstroker in Emma Svensson and a great breaststroker in Dani Beaubrun (who finished top-20 at World’s in the 50 breaststroke). They’ll need Shannon Blizzard to really step up in that butterfly leg, and they’re a great relay.
While the Gator women dominated to the tune of a full-event sweep, the Gator men showed flashes from their great young swimmers amidst some solid competition from around the state.
Freshmen Matt Elliott and Eduardo Solaeche Gomez continued to push each other to great IM times, this time in the 400. Elliott took the win in 3:50.96, followed by Solaeche Gomez in 3:51.24. Keeping in mind that only two freshmen swam this event at the NCAA Championships last year, those are great first-swims for each of them, and both stand as NCAA “B” Times.
The two faced off again in the 100 breaststroke, which is both of theirs’ best stroke, with Elliott winning in 56.77 to Solaeche’s 56.77
Those two must be having great battles in practice every day, and one can only imagine what sort of internal rivalry the pair could develop in four years training together.
Florida got another win from sophomore Marcin Cieslak in 48.85. Teammate Cameron Martin took 2nd in 49.76, and Mikolaj Czarnecki took 3rd in 49.85, which is only a second off of his career-best time.
Yesterday, we highlighted Florida Southern’s 400 medley relay, and specifically Jeb Halfacre. He reaffirmed his quality by winning the 100 back in 50.04. That’s the 4th-best time in the country this year in any division. That topped Florida’s Connor Signorin (50.77) and Matthew Curby (51.01) for the victory.
One of Florida’s prized recruits, Nicholas Caldwell, had a good swim in the 200 free in 1:39.79, but he was upstaged by Mateo de Angulo of Florida State, who won in 1:39.49. Signorin was 3rd in 1:39.89. Both Signorin and Caldwell err towards slightly longer events by preference.
Full day 2 results are available here. The meet will wrap-up on Sunday.
Team Scores – Women
1. Florida, University of 748
2. Florida State University 643
3. Florida Gulf Coast University 425
4. University of Miami 358
5. Florida Atlantic University 232
6. Florida International Univ. 184
7. University of North Florida 87
8. Florida Southern College 62
9. Nova SouthEastern University 49
Team Scores – Men
1. Florida, University of 737
2. Florida State University 678
3. Florida Atlantic University 448
4. Florida Southern College 347
5. Nova SouthEastern University 314
6. University of Miami 40