The University of Florida men’s swimming and diving team rode a one-two finish from Bradley Ally and Shaune Fraser in the 200 individual medley, to move up to second place on the second day of the 2008 SEC Championships.  Florida trails defending SEC and National Champion Auburn by 89 points, earning 233 to Auburn’s 322 through 16 events.

Ally went out strong in the IM, holding onto first place after the first leg of the race but used his personal best stroke, the breaststroke, to widen his lead in the third leg.  Ally touched in with the fastest time in the nation of 1:44.45.  Ally’s time was not a career best for the junior, but did serve as a pool record and gave him his third SEC Championship of his career.  Fraser’s time of 1:44.96 bettered his preliminary time for a strong second place finish.  Both times were automatic qualifying times.

Kevin Nead and Matthew Norton took fifth and sixth in the consolation final with times of 1:48.42 and 1:49.17 respectively.  Both swims were career bests and also served as provisional qualifying times.

“The men swam really well.  We were a little rocky this morning but we came back and were outstanding this morning,” said Head Coach Gregg Troy.  “We put ourselves in a good position to swim well tomorrow.  Bradley Ally was outstanding today, for someone that had a hard time getting going in the early part of the year, he’s really come on strong.”

The Gators picked up three more tickets to the NCAA Championships during the 500 free.  Grant Johnson punched his ticket with a career best and third place time of 4:17.19, while sophomore Roland Rudolf was fourth with a career best and automatic qualifying time of 4:17.44.  Not to be out done, senior Tobias Work touched the wall just behind Rudolf with the fifth fastest time of the day at 4:17.71.  Ryan Crete bettered his career best time, touching in sixth with a provisional time of 4:21.20.  Freshman

Joey Pedraza swam his way to the eighth fastest time in the country at that point, touching in with a career best time of 4:20.20 to finish first in the consolation final of the 500 free.  Pedraza was joined by Logan Storie who placed fourth with his second fastest time of the day, 4:24.30.  Storie set a career best mark in the preliminaries of 4:24.13.

Daniel Penniman and Jos Smith were Florida’s lone representatives in the 50 free.  Penniman turned in the sixth best time of 19.95 while Smith swam to a personal best time of 20.26 to finish fifth in the consolation final, both times served as provisional qualifying times.

Florida wrapped up the evening with a fourth place finish in the 200 free relay.  Penniman, Ally, Hughes and Smith touched in with a provisional time of 1:19.22.

Florida will return to the water tomorrow morning as preliminaries get underway at 10:00 CT.  Live results of all SEC Championship action can be found at www.rolltide.com.