Gator Country

Senior swimmer Jason Taylor won the 1000 freestyle for the No. 1 Gators in their win Thursday against the No. 9 Bulldogs. / Gators Country file photo by Tim Casey

Florida’s No. 1 ranked men’s swimming and diving team defeated No. 9 Georgia, while the women fell to the Bulldogs in the SEC opener Thursday in Athens, Ga. The men grabbed a 192-104 victory, and the Gators’ women were defeated 188-110. The men collected 13 victories against the Bulldogs and the women had four wins on the day.

Leading the way with three event victors was junior Sebastien Rousseau (Cape Town, South Africa) who took first in the 200 fly, 200 back and 200 IM. Rousseau recorded NCAA “B” times in the 200 fly (1:45.73) and the 200 IM (1:48.45).

Freshman Pawel Werner (Wroclaw, Poland) earned his first victory as a Gator with a personal-best and NCAA “B” cut time of 1:37.04 and sophomore Christian Homer (Trinidad and Tobago) followed that up with a win in the 100 back finishing in 49.43. Junior Brad deBorde (Longwood, Fla.) promptly won the 50 free for the Orange and Blue in 20.24.

With his second win of the meet, Werner took the 100 free in a time of 44.71 and sophomore Matt Elliott (Peoria, Ill.) won the 200 breast with a NCAA “B” time of 1:59.44. Senior Jason Taylor (Plant City, Fla.) added a win in the 1000 free (4:25.70) and junior Marcin Cieslak (Warsaw, Poland) swam his second NCAA “B” cut time with a 48.24 to finish first in the 100 fly.

Junior Chris Jones (Palm City, Fla.) swept the diving events for the Gator men, winning the one-meter with a personal-best score of 348.51 and the three-meter with a 346.50. Florida’s men took the top three spots in both events, with senior Sean Saley (Pompano Beach, Fla.) taking second and sophomore Zach Hernandez (Johns Creek, Ga.) finishing third.

Florida’s women started the day off with a win in the 200 medley relay.  The group of junior Elizabeth Beisel (North Kingstown, R.I.), junior Hilda Luthersdottir (Harfnarfjordur, Iceland), freshman Natalie Hinds (Midland, Texas) and senior Jamie Bohunicky (Gainesville, Fla.) combined for a time of 1:41.70.

Beisel and Hinds each had individual event victories on the afternoon. Beisel touched first in the 200 backstroke with a NCAA “B” cut time of 1:55.88, a season-best time for her. She also added second place finishes in the 200 fly and 200 IM finishing in 1:58.26 and 1:59.75 respectively, both NCAA “B” cut times.

Hinds was the top finisher in the 100 fly, with a season-best and NCAA “B” time of 53.95 and took second in the 50 free in another season-best time of 23.00. She then joined Bohunicky, freshman Ashlee Linn (Southfield, Mich.) and junior Ellese Zalewski (Melbourne, Australia) to close out the meet with a win in the 400 free relay (3:21.98).

In the backstroke events, Linn finished just behind Beisel also recording with a NCAA “B” cut time of 1:57.86 and also took runner-up in the 100 back touching in a time of 55.64. Junior Alicia Mathieu (Marlborough, Conn.) scored for the Gators.

On the diving boards, freshman Emily Mosher (Cincinnati, Ohio) was the top finisher for the Gators as she scored 288.07 on the three-meter to finished second and was third on the one-meter with a 263.85.

Courtesy of UF Communications

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