The Florida women’s swimming team maintained its lead while the Florida men moved into second place following Day Three of the Southeastern Conference Swimming and Diving Championships Friday at the James E. Martin Aquatics Center in Auburn, Ala.
In the women’s competition, Florida had an 8-point lead, 534-526, over host Auburn with Georgia (498.5) third. In the men’s competition, host Auburn had a dominating lead with 588.5 points, while Florida is second with 405 and Tennessee is third at 397.5 heading into the final day of the meet.
Senior Bradley Ally set a pool record of 3:41.35 in leading the entire way in the men’s 400-yard IM. He was the only swimmer in the field to clock an NCAA automatic mark in winning his fifth individual SEC title and his second in the event.
Junior Stephanie Proud battled with Auburn’s Ava Ohlgren, the defending champion and record-holder in the women’s 400 IM, before Ohlgren pulled it out in the end. Proud’s second-place finish came in a new school record of 4:07.56, breaking the 25-year-old record held by Florida great Tracy Caulkins. Proud’s teammates Kirsten Smith and Teresa Crippen placed third and fourth in the event.
Jemma Lowe lowered the record she set in the prelims by clocking 51.65 in the finals of the women’s 100-yard fly. Teammate Julianna Lago was third in a career-best 52.17.
Shaune Fraser gave the Gators the title in the 200-yard freestyle, clocking a 1:33.73 in the final. His brother Brett was even faster (1:33.62) in the consolation final of the event and set a pool record.
Junior Gemma Spofforth of Florida, the defending SEC and NCAA champion in the 100-yard backstroke, won her event with a 50.56 clocking after setting SEC, pool and UF records (50.53) in the prelims.
In the men’s 100-yard backstroke, junior Omar Pinzon finished second in 46.46 seconds, while senior Rex Tullius was fourth in 46.49. Both times were NCAA qualifiers.
In the platform diving competition for women, junior Kara Salamone finished fourth and sophomore Monica Dodson was sixth.
In the final events of the evening, the women’s and men’s 400-yard medley relays, both Florida teams finished second in school-record times. But due to an early exchange in the men’s race, the Gators were disqualified, thus negating their 3:06.91 clocking which would have been the second fastest in the nation this season.
But the women took more than two seconds off the previous Florida record of 3:33.94 with their 3:31.41 mark, an NCAA automatic qualifying mark. Spofforth re-set her SEC and school records in the 100-yard back with a 50.46 split to open the relay and was followed by Linday Rogers (breaststroke), Lowe (fly) and Shara Stafford (freestyle).
The final day of the competition begins with prelims at 11 a.m. ET and ends with finals at 7 p.m.
MEN’S TENNIS: The 11th-ranked Gators made first work of No. 37 South Florida with a 7-0 victory in Linder Stadium at the Ring Tennis Complex in Gainesville. The victory by coach Andy Jackson’s Gators made them 6-0 at home (7-3 overall) and also 8-0 in their history over the Bulls.
Florida gained the doubles point thanks to victories by the teams of Carlos Cueto and Alex Lacroix and Jeff Dadamo and Johnny Hamui. The Cueto-Lacroix team beat USF’s Jamal Adderley and Yannick Yoshizawa, 8-3, in 28 minutes. The Dadamo-Hamui team beat Wael Kilani and Romain Deridder, 8-3.
Lacroix then beat Kilani, 6-4, 6-4, to put Florida up 2-0. Then Antoine Benneteau beat Mahmoud Hamed of USF, 6-2, 7-5 for a 3-0 lead and then Dadamo outfought Thomas Estrada of USF, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, to clinch the victory. Joey Burkhardt, Hamui and Cueto then added insurance victories.
Florida returns to action Sunday against No. 24 Miami (Fla.) at 1 p.m.