Missy Franklin Looks Healthy in Two-Win Session; Pawel Werner Impresses Gregg Troy at All-Florida Invite

While the men’s meet on day 2 of the 2014 All-Florida Invitational was another Gator romp, the women’s meet was comparatively wide open when posed next to Friday’s finals session that saw the University of Florida take 4 of 5 events.

Team scores after Saturday:

Women

1. Florida – 720
2. Cal – 590
3. Florida Gulf Coast – 472
4. Florida State – 460
5. Miami – 270
6. Nova Southeastern – 114
7. North Florida – 68

Men

1. Florida – 960
2. Florida State – 646
3. Nova Southeastern – 468

Remember that a maximum of two swimmers (women’s meet) and three swimmers (men’s meet) were eligible to race int he A-Final, and there were no prelims for relays.

Women’s Meet

In the session-opening 200 medley relay, the speed-heavy Florida State Seminoles took an early victory, by a half-second, in the 200 medley relay, swimming a 1:40.91.

The relay foursome featured Bianca Spinazzola (25.86), Natalie Pierce (28.55), Chelsea Britt (24.33), and Kaitlyn Dressel (22.17). The bookends to the relay are names that people know (in part because they’re from very good swimming families), but the middle two legs are pushing their way into that conversation as well. Pierce, just a freshman, out-split everyone in that relay on the breaststroke leg, and Britt, who might be the best under-the-radar swimmer in the country, held her own as well swimming fly.

Cal’s relay, which might have been the best in the country last year despite being DQ’ed in prelims, was 2nd here in 1:41.46. That included a 23.89 fly split from Noemie Thomas, who has risen to the challenge for the Golden Bears this weekend. As a whole, it’s been an up-and-down two days for Cal, but the young freshmen are performing well.

Florida was 3rd in 1:41.49, with Natalie Hinds anchoring them in 21.82 – an NCAA-worthy split, though it’s only October. Florida Gulf Coast’s A relay was 4th in 1:41.59 with a 23.54 fly split from senior All-American Emma Svensson – the fastest of the field. FGCU’s B relay had a 28.67 breaststroke split, that if subbed in onto their A relay would have easily moved them up to 2nd.

Cal had one of their high points in the first individual event of the night: the 400 IM. There, the team went 1-2 in the A-final and won the B-Final for the three fastest times overall.

Kelly Naze swam a 4:17.80 to take 1st place, with teammate Liz Pelton placing 2nd in 4:18.66. Pelton was about three seconds faster on this same weekend last season, though that was in a very different scenario, much closer to home, and in a dual meet.

In the B-Final, Celina Li, the best 400 IM’er in the field, swam a 4:17.79 to finish 9th, despite having the best time all-told.

The fastest non-Cal swimmer was Florida’s Jess Thielmann in 4:21.95.

Natalie Hinds came back with another fantastic swim in the women’s 100 fly, as did Noemie Thomas, two of the standouts from the medley relay earlier. Hinds held a lead basically the entire race, and with a final push on the last 25 yards was able to win in 53.44. Thomas took 2nd in 53.82, and both of the top two hit NCAA “B” standards.

Florida State’s Chelsea Britt had another very good swim as well with a 55.08 for 3rd. Miami’s Angela Algee was 4th in 55.40, and Cal freshman Jasmine Mau placed 5th in 55.66.

Missy Franklin continues to get better-and-better as this meet goes on. She won the women’s 200 free and ran away from the field in the process, swimming a 1:46.37.

Franklin’s splits showed the growing confidence in her back, where spasms plagued her at Pan Pacs this summer.

1. 24.60
2. 26.84
3. 27.46
4. 27.47

She attacked this swim early, splitting a second better than the field, but didn’t fade much on the back-half.

The victory was overwhelming: Franklin won in 1:46.37. Her teammate Camille Cheng was the next-closest swimmer in 1:49.42.

Kaitlyn Dressel was 3rd for Florida State in 1:50.04, and Lindsey McKnight rose again for Florida, as she’s done all weekend, with a 1:50.43 for 4th.

Franklin would win again two events later, topping the 100 backstroke in 54.05. She wasn’t the big news in that race, however. With all of the All-American backstrokers present at this meet (Toussaint, Klaren, Pelton, Bootsma, Svensson), it was Florida’s Natalie Hinds who took 2nd in 54.67. Hinds is not a total unknown in the backstrokes (she swam a 53.7 at the Ohio State Invite last year), but a time this good, this early in the season is one more indicator of how well she’s swimming overall through three total days of racing this season.

“She’s never been much of a backstroker, but her racing (Cal’s) Missy Franklin close is a real good thing,” said her head coach Gregg Troy.

FGCU’s Toussaint took 3rd in 54.83, and Klaren was 4th in 55.35. Liz Pelton won the B-Final in 54.91.

The freshman Natalie Pierce backed up her split on the medley relay by winning the individual 100 breaststroke in a hard-fought battle over McKnight. McKnight jumped out to the early lead, but Pierce was strong on the back-half to win in 1:03.66. McKnight took 2nd in 1:03.83.

Florida Gulf Coast’s Evita Leter took 3rd in 1:04.33. She was the swimmer on the B-medley for FGCU who could’ve made a difference in that earlier event, and she backed that up again by beating her freshman teammate Katie Armitage (7th – 1:05.56).

Cal’s top finisher was Celina Li in 1:04.84, followed by her teammate Marina Garcia (1:04.99). Garcia still hasn’t quite hit the lofty expectations of her when she came to Cal from Spain before last year, but she’s an important piece to the Golden Bears’ NCAA title hopes.

Cal’s 3rd finalist was freshman Maija Roses, who took 11th in 1:06.41.

The Cal women finished the session with a victory in the 800 free relay, swimming a 7:20.65. Caroline Piehl (1:50.86), Catherine Breed (1:49.75), Cierra Runge (1:50.02), and Camille Cheng (1:50.02) combined for the victory over Florida’s 7:23.60 (nobody else was close). Cal has still not used Missy Franklin on a relay yet at this meet.

Florida’s relay was Jess Thielmann, Natalie Hinds, Lindsey McKnight, and Ashlee Linn, in cluding a 1:49.52 from McKnight (the fastest in the field). That’s significant, because the last three of those swimmers have been on every Florida relay so far in this meet. That works in a format with unlimited entries like this meet, but will be an unlikely strategy when NCAA’s roll around. Florida needs to find more depth between now and then.

Men’s Meet

On the men’s side, the most impressive swimmer of the day was Pawel Werner, at least if you ask Florida head coach Gregg Troy.

“Pawel Werner was really impressive today,” Troy said. “After his shoulder surgery a year ago, we are finally starting to see the same guy we saw a couple years ago. He’s been very, very, very consistent.”

Florida graduated a big class last year, and though they’re winning a lot, that’s showed a little this weekend with Dan Wallace still suspended. As Troy alluded to, Werner had a tough championship season last year, having still not fully come around after surgery, but this year the Gators will count on him to be a focal point.

He came through in the 200 free where a 1:37.08 gave him the win, an NCAA “B” cut, and the fastest time in the country so far in the 2014-2015 season. There, he beat out teammates Mitch D’Arrigo (1:38.15) and Nick Alexiou (1:38.51). Alexiou is making his debut for Florida at this meet after sitting out last year following a transfer from Virginia.

The top non-Gator in the race was Florida State’s Kevin Rogers, who placed 4th in 1:40.77.

It’s not a surprise given their 1-2-3 finish in the individual 200 free, but the Florida men rolled in the 800 free relay. Their “A” swam a 6:35.42 for the win and the “B” was 6:39.39 for 2nd. The top splits there included Corey Main going 1:37.30 on a rolling start, Werner going 1:37.74, and D’Arrigo going 1:37.97. Caeleb Dressel also flat-started a 1:38.2 on a leadoff for the winning relay.

Florida also went 1-2 in the session-opening 200 medley relay. The A swam a 1:28.61, while the B was 1:29.80. Aside from the backstroke legs (where Main was a 22.27) and the freestyle legs (where Dressel was a 19.82), these were closely-matched groups.

Florida State placed 3rd in 1:31.78, which included a 21.55 from Cole Hensley on the fly leg.

While there were some close finishes on Friday, the men’s 400 IM wasn’t one of them. Matt Elliott stormed his way to a 3:51.04 victory in the men’s 400 IM. That put him 10 seconds ahead of runner-up and teammate Carlos Omana (4:01.49). Eduardo Solaeche-Gomez scratched out of the final after being the third qualifier in prelims.

Elliott took a 2nd win two races later in the 100 breaststroke, swimming a 54.72 to beat out Florida State’s Jason Coombs (54.97). After the meet, Troy lauded Elliott’s experience, saying that the team was expecting better consistency out of him this season.

Caeleb Dressel got his first individual win as a college swimmer by going a 47.74 in the men’s 100 fly final. He beat out Nova Southeastern freshman Thiago Sickert (48.23) and Florida State’s Connor Knight (48.58). There’s been a lot of talk about Dressel expanding beyond the sprint freestyles in college, and while he was one of the best high school butterfliers ever, him continuing to push ahead in this race is as much a necessity as any desire to create a well-rounded swimmer. He was nine-tenths faster than anybody else Florida put forward.

And finally, in the last individual event of the day, Corey Main took a win in 48.45 to out-touch his teammate Jack Blyzinskyj (49.13) and Nova Southeastern’s Thiago Sickerts (50.25).

The meet will conclude on Sunday with another prelims/finals setup.

Full meet results available here through two days.
Day two finals only available here.