COLUMBUS, Ohio – Junior Conor Dwyer won the 500-yard freestyle for his first individual title and Florida used his victory to finish the first day of the NCAA Division I Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships in third place with 118 points.
Texas (145) and California (139) were first and second after the first day of competition at Ohio State’s McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion. The Gators were ahead of Auburn (114.5) and Stanford (106) moving into the second day of the three-day competition.
“We had a really great first day – our best first day in a long time,” head coach Gregg Troy said. “We thought we could have been a little faster in the final relay (fourth), but we swam well the whole way through tonight, including multiple swims for Shaune (Fraser). I also can’t say enough about Conor. He had a great race. We have to rest up tonight and come back ready to race tomorrow and the rest of the weekend.”
Dwyer shattered his own Florida record in the race, also eclipsing the pool record, to out-touch Jean Basson of Arizona by one-hundredth of a second, 4:13.64-4:13.65. The 500 free national title was Florida’s second all-time in the event, as Matt Cetlinski took Florida’s first crown in 1986. It was the 28th individual title overall by Florida, which also has won eight relay titles.
“It was an honor to win the 500 against such a great field of swimmers,” Dwyer said. “Originally I was planning to take the race out with the field, but Clement Lefert (USC) took the beginning out pretty fast right off the bat. I knew that I just had to swim my race, so that’s what I did. It was pretty close down the stretch, but my plan all along was to make my move around the 300 mark. That’s what I did and it feels great to win a title for the Gators.”
Junior Balazs Gercsak (Budapest, Hungary) finished seventh in the 500 with a 4:18.92 to provide depth for the Gators, after swimming a stellar morning race.
“The first day’s events aren’t our best as a team,” Dwyer continued, “so we’re excited about the next couple of days and the swims we have ahead of us.”
Florida rallied in the next race of the night with a runner-up finish in the 200-yard individual medley by senior Shaune Fraser of the Grand Cayman Island. Fraser was timed at 1:42.99, four-hundredths of a second behind Austin Surhoff of Texas. Fraser earned his 21st All-America title with the finish. Senior Omar Pinzon of Colombia finished fourth overall with a career-best time of 1:42.43 after leading the race through the fly and back legs.
After qualifying both the 200-yard freestyle and 400-yard medley relays for championship finals, the Gators chalked up a seventh-place finish in the 200-yard free relay behind Brett Fraser, Shaune Fraser, Matt Norton and senior Roberto Gomez. Florida turned in a 1:17.96 finale after getting started with a 19.67 leadoff leg by Brett Fraser.
Florida closed out the evening session with a fourth-place finish in the 400-yard medley relay, composed of Pinzon, Dwyer and both Frasers, swimming a 3:06.06 after completing finals second in 3:05.88.
The Gators return to the pool for the second day Saturday for the 200 medley relay, 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free, 100 breast, 100 back and 800 free relay.