The No. 3 University of Florida men’s swimming and diving team (2-1, 1-1 Southeastern Conference) posted six event wins, but could not hold off No. 9 Georgia (4-0, 2-0 SEC) in meet’s final event, falling by a score of 122-121 on Thursday at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center.

“It was a pretty disappointing loss,” Florida head coach Gregg Troy said. “We had a chance to beat them, but it got away from us a little bit. We got off to a great start, but we just didn’t hang on.”

UF built an early lead on the strength of wins from freshman Shaune Fraser (George Town, Cayman Islands) in the 200 free (1:38.74) and sophomore Bradley Ally (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) in the 200 individual medley (1:49.17). Ally’s time in the victory marked an NCAA provisional qualifying standard, his second of the year in the event. The quartet of freshman Omar Pinzon (Bogota, Colombia), senior Bill Mrazek (Tallahassee, Fla.), Fraser and junior Daniel Penniman (Pensacola, Fla.) contributed to Florida’s fast start with a win in the 400 MR (3:20.01) to open the meet.

Pinzon added his first career individual win, and his initial NCAA provisional qualifying time as a Gator, in the 200 back, clocking in at 1:47.01. Freshman Roland Rudolf (Budapest, Hungary) contributed a runner-up finish in the 200 free (1:40.04), and junior Kevin Nead (Ithaca, N.Y.) did the same in the 1,000 free with a time of 9:24.57. Fraser rounded out his solid meet with a second-place showing in the 100 free (45.43).

Sophomore diver Jonathan Wilcox (Bellevue, Wash.) swept the diving events for the Gators, turning in two NCAA Zone qualifying scores in the process. After opening the meet with a winning score of 331.50 in the 1M dive, Wilcox paced the field in the 3M event with a total of 350.70. The two NCAA Zone qualifying marks on the day ran his season total of such scores to four.

Junior Sebastien Rouault captured wins in both the 500 and 1,000 free, and senior Cameron Hollinger placed first in the 50 and 100 free, to lead the way for Georgia. Juniors Gil Stovall and Neil Versfeld chipped in with wins and NCAA provisional qualifying times in the 200 fly and 200 breast, respectively.

In the final event of the meet – the 400 FR – Georgia’s squad of Stovall, Hollinger, senior Joe Smutz and junior Nathan Bibliowicz turned in a winning time of 3:00.70 to capture the dual-meet win for the Bulldogs.

“We raced fairly well as a team, but some mistakes cost us in the long run,” Troy said. “We’re young, and we’ll continue to learn from things like this. We had a couple guys race really well individually.”

Florida will be back in action on Friday when it faces No. 10 Minnesota at the O’Connell Center. Men’s and women’s 1M diving is scheduled for 12:15 p.m. EST, with swimming to commence at 2 p.m. Doors will open just prior to the start of the first diving event.

Men’s Results (Georgia 122, Florida 121)

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