Gators Swim Last Regular Season Meet Before NCAA’s

The Gator swimming and diving teams competed in their final meet before NCAA Championships in Georgia this weekend. Starting on Saturday, the Gators competed in the Bulldog Last Chance Invitational and wrapped up racing Sunday night.

The men’s team finished first with 309 points. The women only had two swimmers competing, finishing sixth with 53 points. The Gators added 14 B-cuts on Saturday and seven more on Sunday.

MEET DAY 🐊

🆚Bulldog Last Chance
📍 Athens, GA
🕚 Prelims 10 AM /Finals 4 PM
📊 https://t.co/UJffmENEVu#GoGators pic.twitter.com/UmXgBabm3Q

— Gators Swimming & Diving (@GatorsSwimDv) February 26, 2023

First Day Swims

Aryan Nehra started the Gators off strong in Saturday’s prelims in the 500 freestyle. He not only earned himself a B-cut but a personal best time as well. He improved on his time by eight seconds during finals that night.  Brennan Gravely and Ben Cote joined Nehra in earning themselves B-cuts in the 500 free.

Billy Jones and Peter Bretzmann both earned B-cuts in the 200 IM, with Jones finishing second at 1:43.90.  In the 50 free, the men had three sub-20 times. Edouard Fullum-Huot swam a 19.46, Chance Tirheimer racked a 19.53 and Dawson Joyce hit the wall at a 19.79. They were all B-cuts.

Amro Al-Wir was runner-up in the 100 breaststroke at a 52.53 and Raphael Rached Windmuller snatched a 52.68. Both were also B-cuts.  Another B-cut was secured by Cameron Abaqueta in the 200 backstroke as well as by Bretzmann in the 200 breaststroke time trial. The 400 IM time trial also secured two B-cuts by Cote and Jack VanDeusen.

Last Day of Regular Season

Bretzmann started the last day of regular season with a B-cut again during the 400 IM to finish second.  The sprint event of day was won in by Fullum-Huot with 42.42 and Tirheimer took a B-cut in prelims with a 43.14.  Allie Piccirillo also secured a B-cut and first place in her 200 butterfly clocking in a 1:56.70.

Al-Wir and Windmuller dominated the breaststroke event again, both getting B-cuts and Windmuller won the event in finals.  Abaqueta finished the day with his B-cut earning him fourth in the 100 backstroke at a 47.04.

The women’s NCAA championships will be held in Knoxville, Tennessee on March 15-18. The men’s NCAA championships are March 22-25 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

All sights set towards next month 🐊

📝: https://t.co/G6DuNBCtLw#GoGators

— Gators Swimming & Diving (@GatorsSwimDv) February 27, 2023