Sophomore diver Jonathan Wilcox (Bellevue, Wash.) set a new school record in the 1M dive and the University of Florida men (8-5, 4-2 Southeastern Conference) won the first 10 swimming events en route to a 162-119 win over Florida Atlantic on Senior Day at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center. The five departing members of the UF men’s team were among a total of 11 seniors honored prior to the meet.

Wilcox posted a score of 373.50 on the 1M board on Saturday, breaking the record of 369.22 that his older brother, former Gator standout Zach Wilcox, set in 2003. He also tallied a score of 399.23 in the 3M dive versus the Owls, diving with exhibition status due to score differential. On Friday, Wilcox eclipsed his own UF standard in the 3M event with a score of 436.13, giving him two school records in as many days to wrap up the regular season.

“This weekend is the best that Jonathan has performed all season,” Florida diving coach Donnie Craine said. “If we dive like this at the conference meet, we’ll be very happy with our results. All of the success from this weekend has to carry over into the postseason, or it doesn’t mean as much.”

Nine of Florida’s 10 individual wins on the afternoon came from different swimmers, including six team members who picked up their first win of the season on Saturday. Senior Robbie Fischetti (Richmond, Va.), swimming his final home dual meet, was the lone two-time winner of the day for UF, taking first in both the 100 breast (57.31) and the 200 back (1:51.30), while his time in the latter event constituted a career best. Fischetti’s victory in the 100 breast was his initial first-place finish of the year.

Freshman Kyle Coan (Plantation, Fla.) notched the first win of his season and career in the 200 free with a time of 1:40.14, as did fellow rookie Skylar Stroman (Indian Harbour Beach, Fla.) in the 100 back (49.30). Peter Hughes (Winter Park, Fla.), another member of Florida’s freshman class, also captured the first win of his young career against FAU, clocking a time of 20.57 to take the 50 free. All three of the UF freshmen’s times marked collegiate bests. Sophomore Jos Smith (Milledgeville, Ga.) captured his first win of the season in the 100 free with a career-best time of 45.34, and junior Kyle Deery (Daytona Beach, Fla.) registered a personal-best 2:02.71 to take the 200 breast for his first win of the campaign.

Sophomore Cody Kauffman (Harrisburg, Pa.) collected the Gators’ first win of the day, registering the first NCAA provision-qualifying time of his career with a career-best time of 15:16.85 to place first in the 1,650 free, shaving nearly 20 seconds off of his previous personal best. Junior Dustin McLarty (DeLand, Fla.) chipped in with a victory in the 200 fly (1:50.91) and the quartet of sophomore Rex Tullius (Port Orange, Fla.), sophomore Bradley Ally (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) sophomore Lucas Salatta (Sao Paulo, Brazil) and Smith took the win in the 200 MR with a time of 1:30.82. Salatta also posted an NCAA-provisional time of 4:25.27 in the 500 free, despite swimming the event for the first time as a collegian.

“This team is ready to be done with dual meets and finally have our shot at the SEC Championships,” Florida head coach Gregg Troy, who was coaching his 100th career men’s dual meet, said. “Dual meets are important as learning and coaching tools to measure where we’re at during the season, and to make evaluations throughout the year. We’ve seen some really good indications over the weekend, because there was a handful of people that needed to show us what they were capable of over these last few meets, and their performances are going to make our decision very difficult this week when we select our conference meet lineups.”

The Gators will take a short break from competition before entering the water again in Lexington, Ky., for the SEC Championships. UF’s divers will compete from Feb. 2-4 on the campus of the University of Kentucky, while the Florida swimmers will take on the rest of the conference from Feb. 7-10.

Men’s Results (Florida 162, FAU 119)

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