The University of Florida Men’s Swimming & Diving team completed the first day of a three session tri-meet versus Texas and California at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center. After 12 events the Gators trail California 155-67 and Texas 142-80.

A quartet of Gator swimmers set season and personal-best times during the competition, but their efforts were not enough to overcome a slow start against two teams that finished in the top-10 at the NCAA Championships last season. Senior Brian Hartley (Indianapolis, Ind.) put together a strong performance during the morning session by finishing third in the 500 free. Hartley swam the event in a personal season-best time of 4:28.50. He followed up in the evening session by shaving two seconds off his season-best time in the 200 back (1:49.56) to finish in fifth place.

Freshman Bradley Ally (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) continued to impress during his rookie campaign by recording a personal and team-best time of 2:02.21 in the 200 breast. Ally also won his heat in the 200 IM, which was good for second place overall. California’s Miguel Molina won the 200 IM in a time of 1:48.99. Florida sophomore Darian Townsend (Pietermaritzburg, South Africa), finished third in the 200 IM with a personal-best time of 1:50.75.

During the sprint events, Townsend recorded another personal-best time. He swam to a second place finish in the 100 free with a time of 44.73, which was also the team’s best time this season. California’s Jonas Tilly edged Townsend for first place in a time of 44.44.

Florida sophomore Dustin McLarty (DeLand, Fla.) lowered the season-standard in the 1,650 free by 10 seconds during the evening session. McLarty placed fourth with a time of 15:38.03. Tobias Work (Falmouth, Mass.) was not far behind in fifth with a time of 15:39.16.

“We’re finding out where we are at in our training,” head coach Gregg Troy said. “I think it’s a good measuring stick for the team on where they need to improve.  There is a saying in swimming that if you’re happy in October, you’re not going to be very happy in March. We’re not very happy right now, but it’s still early in the season.”

In the diving competition, junior Justin Schmidt (Falcon, Col) qualified for the NCAA Zone meet for the third time in his career. Schmidt recorded a score of 308 points during an exhibition platform competition that included six dives. The NCAA qualifying standard for six platform dives is 300 points.  In the morning session, Gao Bailey of Texas took first place on the three-meter springboard with a score of 357.90. Florida freshman Jonathan Wilcox (Bellevue, Wash.) took second place with a score of 329.80.

Men’s Results

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