The University
of Florida swimming and diving squads tallied nine NCAA provisional-qualifying
times during day one of the Bulldog Invitational, a last chance meet being held
on the campus of the University of Georgia this Saturday-Sunday. The two-day
invite offers swimmers a final shot at qualifying and improving their standings
for the upcoming NCAA Championships.
“We had
some very solid swims in the morning preliminaries, but tonight’s swims were
much stronger,” Florida swimming and diving assistant
coach Hollie Bonewit-Cron said. “Everyone is doing their best to make
this last meet count, and to post the qualifying times they need to make the
NCAA meet. The pressure is on, but the squads are handling it very well.”
Freshman Jenne
Ballatore (Gainesville, Fla.) and junior Samantha Vanderbilt
(Nashville, Tenn.) each recorded a pair of ‘B’ cuts
at the Gabrielsen Natatorium. Ballatore topped her prelim time of 1:49.82 in
the 200 freestyle by more than a second as she clocked in at 1:48.70 in the
final. Senior Kristin Gilliam (Gainesville, Fla.) narrowly missed the provisional
standard after touching the wall in 1:50.40 in the event, just one-tenth of a
second off of the cut. Vanderbilt led the way for the Gator women in both the
morning and night swims of the 100 backstroke, where she recorded a time of 55.81
in the prelim and 55.14 in the evening. Vanderbilt would have led a 1-2-3 Gator finish if the events were
open for scoring, as freshman Sarah Peterson (Franklin, Tenn.) and senior Kristen Harris (Holmdel, N.J.) notched ‘B’-times of 55.51 and
55.86, respectively. Junior Amanda Hartley (Tallahassee, Fla.) and sophomore Stephanie Cota (Granite Bay, Calif.) tacked on the final Gator
provisional times for the women’s squad, with Hartley clocking a time of
1:03.32 in the 100 breast, and Cota completing the 500
freestyle in 4:49.34, nearly five seconds better than her prelim time of
4:54.04.
On the
men’s side, junior Dustin McLarty (DeLand, Fla.) notched the lone ‘B’ time of the
day for the men, as his time of 3:52.60 in the 400 IM met the provisional
standard.
In diving
action, sophomore Jeana Bartell (Boca Raton, Fla.) and freshman Jennifer Funch (Cincinnati, Ohio) qualified for the NCAA Zone
Diving, which is the first step in advancing to the NCAA Championships. Bartell
recorded a score of 265.50 on the 1-meter dive, and Funch posted 267.85 points
in the event. On the 3-meter board, Bartell and Funch again met the Zone
qualifying score of 280, with Bartell scoring 283.50 and Funch scoring 282.25.
Sophomore
Jonathon Wilcox (Bellevue, Wash.) would have won both events, as
his Zone-qualifying scores of 364.90 on the 1-meter and 390.00 on the 3-meter
would have topped the field of seven competitors in the finals. Senior Justin
Schmidt (Falcon, Fla.) and sophomore Aaron Leech (Newark, Del.) also
advanced to the Zone meet, as Schmidt posted scores of 343.95 (1-meter) and
357.95 (3-meter), and Leech scored 306.75 in the 1-meter final and 321.20 in
the 3-meter prelims.
The
Bulldog Invitational will conclude on Sunday. Prelims are set to begin at 10 a.m. with finals on tap for 4 p.m.
-UF-
