The University of Florida swimming and diving team won their third-straight All-Florida Invitational as the women finished on top with 1,141.5 points and the men were first with 1,273 points. Florida State finished as the runner of for both the men (919) and the women (763.5), while Florida Gulf Coast took third for the women (596) and Florida Atlantic (559) was third on the men’s side.
The Gators finished the meet with 30 total victories, including 21 individual event wins and nine relay wins. There were 15 different Florida swimmers to win individual events and junior Chris Jones (Palm City, Fla.) won the one-meter diving event for the Orange and Blue.
Junior Elizabeth Beisel (North Kingstown, R.I.) led the women with three individual wins in the 500 free, 200 IM and 200 back, while also earning a win as part of the 400 medley relay. On the men’s side, red-shirt junior Sebastien Rousseau (Cape Town, South Africa) also collected three wins, as he took first in the 500 free, 400 IM and the 200 butterfly. He also helped the 400 medley relay and 800 free relay to wins during the weekend.
On Sunday night, the Gators started the evening off strong with a sweep of the 1650 free. Junior Alicia Mathieu (Marlborough, Conn.) touched first with a time of 16:37.03 for the women and senior Jason Taylor clocked in with a time of 15:29.15 to take the win.
Beisel earned her third win of the weekend when she finished the 200 back in a time of 1:56.22. Just behind her were freshmen Ashlee Linn (Southfield, Mich.) and Sinead Russell (Burlington, Ontario) who finished two-three with 1:57.96 and 2:00.53 respectively.
The men collected four more victories as sophomore Carlos Omana (Miami, Fla.) took the 200 back (1:47.42), junior Brad deBorde (Longwood, Fla.) was first in a close 100 free race (44.88) and sophomore Matt Elliott won the men’s 200 breast in a time of 2:01.15. Rousseau added his third individual win in the men’s 200 fly, finishing in a time of 1:46.41.
In the final event of the weekend, the Gators swept the 400 free relay. The group of freshman Lindsey McKnight (Coral Springs, Fla.), Linn, freshman Natalie Hinds (Midland, Texas) and senior Jamie Bohunicky (Gainesville, Fla.) finished first in a time of 3:22.51.
The men’s relay of freshman Pawel Werner (Wroclaw, Poland), deBorde, sophomore Eduardo Solaeche-Gomez (Madrid, Spain) and sophomore Matt Curby (Oviedo, Fla.) edged out Florida State for the win in a time of 2:59.84.