COLUMBUS, Ohio – Florida junior freestyler Conor Dwyer became the first NCAA men’s swimmer since 2001 to win both the 200 and 500 freestyle races in the same meet after he won the 200-yard freestyle in 1:32.31 Saturday at Ohio State.
Florida stood in fourth place after the second day of the three-day championship that concludes Sunday at the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion. The Gators had 264 points, five behind third-place Auburn. California was in first place with 348.5 points with Texas second with 330 points. Stanford rounds out the top five teams with 221 points.
“We had a really great day of racing today,” said Florida head coach Gregg Troy. “We did everything we could today and swam well this evening, even though we may be a few bodies short. We had a few guys swim a lot of events and you could tell they were getting tired, but they continued to race extremely hard to the end. We had excellent swims in the 200(-yard) freestyle and also in the 100 back. It’s going to be a dogfight for third place. Tomorrow is our best day, but we don’t have a whole lot of races, so we have to make the ones we do have really count when it matters.”
Dwyer matched the double by Southern California’s Klete Keller in becoming the first Florida swimmer to win the 200 and 500 in the same season. Senior Shaune Fraser, the defending champion in the event, was second in 1:32.53 and junior Brett Fraser placed seventh. Sophomore Jeff Raymond improved from 16th to 13th in the consolation final as Florida scored 53 points in the one event.
“It was a really good swim,” said Dwyer, whose winning time was a career best. “I really tried to push that third 50 to try and win the race. Right now, I’m just trying to contribute to the team and move us up in the team scores. Tomorrow I’m excited for the 100 free to get the fast-twitch muscles going.”
The same quartet who scored big for the Gators in the 200 free – the Frasers, Raymond and Dwyer – placed second in the final event of the evening session, the 800-yard freestyle relay. The Florida quartet broke the school record in the event with a time of 6:14.72 to place second to overall winner Texas.
“Of course I wanted to win the 200 free because we’re all competitive,” Shaune Fraser said, “but if there’s anyone I’d want to beat me, it’d be Conor. We work together and train every day, so we’re always competing and always working hard. Tomorrow I’m looking forward to the 200 fly and then also the relay. We think we have a team together that can do pretty good and have some success.”
Senior Omar Pinzon and freshman Marco Loughran finished fourth (46.30 seconds) and sixth (46.52), respectively, in the final of the 100-yard backstroke. Freshman Sebastien Rousseau placed 12th overall in the 400-yard individual medley with a time of 3:44.57.
Loughran, Dwyer, Pinzon and Brett Fraser finished sixth in the 200-yard medley relay in a time of 1:25.45.
On the final day of the meet Sunday, Florida will have competitors in the 200-yard backstroke, 100-yard freestule, 200-yard breaststroke, 200-yard butterfly, the mile and the 400-yard freestyle relay.