Gator Country

The University of Florida swimming and diving team is looking to make a splash against Tennessee on Saturday in the regular season finale in Knoxville, Tennessee.

The meet, located at Jones Aquatic Center, will start at 11 a.m.

Both the men and women’s teams are coming off a big win against Auburn last Saturday in Gainesville. The win was good enough for the men to move into the seventh slot in the country and put their record at 5-0-1 and 2-0-1 in the SEC. The women also climbed the ladder to be second in the country just behind the No. 1-ranked California Berkley. Berkeley’s record is 7-1 and 5-1 against SEC opponents.

At Monday’s press conference, Gregg Troy, head coach of the men’s team, said he respects the level at which Tennessee is performing.

“The men’s team is always very, very well coached; race you real tough,” he said. “The women’s team might be one of the most talented one’s in the country. Both are potential top ten teams.”

The men’s squad for Tennessee is currently No. 20 in the country while the women are 10th.

The meet will be a good test for the Gators with the SEC championships looming around the corner. The tournament will be held Feb.15-18 in Tennessee’s backyard.

“In the SEC you’re going to have a lot of good competition all the time. You can’t get too excited about anything and we’ve really stressed that with the athletes, especially when you have eight sessions over four days at the conference meet. You’re going to take each one of them and while you want to be enthusiastic about all of them, you have to keep an even keel or run out of gas toward the end of the meet,” Coach Troy said.

Gator Country reporter Sara Ladwig can be reached at

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