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Swimming

Burckle, Napier Break School Records as Gators Lead at SEC Championships

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.- Stephanie Napier and Caroline Burckle each brokeschool records in the 50 free and 500 free, respectively, to lead theUniversity of Florida women's swimming and diving team to a first placestanding after day two of the Southeastern Conference Championships.

As a team, the Gators currently lead defending SEC and National ChampionAuburn, with a total of 272 points to Auburn's 230 points.Tennesseecurrently sits in third place with a total of 200.5 points.For theevening, Florida totaled seven automatic qualifying times and fourprovisional times.

"The women have been outstanding," said Head Coach Gregg Troy."We hada great day.Obviously Caroline Burckle was great, but across the boardwe had great swims.We had solid relays and our diving really helped."

This was one of our better days.We have to continue to do what we aredoing.".

Burckle went out fast and came home to break her own SEC record with atime of 4:34.87.She was just off Janet Evan's NCAA mark of 4:34.39,falling behind in just the last 50 meters.Her time was the secondfastest ever by a collegian, behind Evans, and set a new pool record aswell.Her new record betters Tami Bruce's record of 4:38.03, a recordthat had been in place since 1988, by 3.16 seconds.Burckle won the 500in her freshman year and by winning the event this year brings theChampionship back to Gainesville after a two year layoff.A Gator womanhad won the event every year from 2001-05.The win was Burckle's secondSEC Championship of the meet as well as second SEC record.

Florida picked up more points from both Kim Larson and LaurabethGuenthner, who placed seventh and eighth with times of 4:44.71 and4:44.89.For Guenthner, her time was an improvement upon herpreliminaries finish and serves as a new personal best.

Napier, who tied Florida great Dara Torres' school record of 22.38 inthe preliminaries, returned to place her name at the top of the recordbooks with her swim of 22.30 in the finals.Napier collected anautomatic qualifying time, punching her ticket to Columbus with herrecord-breaking swim.

Gemma Spofforth continued her record setting performance at this year'schampionships, touching in with the third place and third-best time inthe 200 individual medley.Spofforth's time of 1:57.46 places her just.40 seconds off school record pace.Natalie Pike improved upon herplacing from last season as well as her standing, touching in with afourth place time of 1:58.98 to move her up to seventh on the UFall-time list.Senior Leah Retrum turned in her best swim in the eventthis season, touching the wall with a fifth place time of 1:59.29.

Stephanie Proud touched the wall in 2:00.46 to finish seventh.

In her first SEC Championships, freshman Monica Dodson went out andfinished fourth with her second best total on the three-meter board thisweek.She placed fourth in the preliminaries with her second-best scoreof the season, 206.50.

Florida's relay team of Napier, Pike, Healy and Liz Kemp wrapped up theevening with a fourth place finish and a time of 1:30.20.The time wasthe second fastest ever by a UF 200 FR team and served as an automaticqualifying time.

The Gators will return to the water tomorrow for day three of thechampionships.Live results can be found on www.rolltide.com.

Ally Wins Third SEC Championship to Lead Florida Men's Swimming

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.- The University of Florida men's swimming and divingteam rode a one-two finish from Bradley Ally and Shaune Fraser in the200 individual medley, to move up to second place on the second day ofthe 2008 SEC Championships.Florida trails defending SEC and NationalChampion Auburn by 89 points, earning 233 to Auburn'sAlly went out strong in the IM, holding onto first place after the firstleg of the race but used his personal best stroke, the breaststroke, towiden his lead in the third leg.Ally touched in with the fastest timein the nation of 1:44.45.Ally's time was not a career best for thejunior, but did serve as a pool record and gave him his third SECChampionship of his career.Fraser's time of 1:44.96 bettered hispreliminary time for a strong second place finish.Both times wereautomatic qualifying times.

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

"The men swam really well.We were a little rocky this morning but wecame 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 timegetting 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 duringthe 500 free.Grant Johnson punched his ticket with a career best andthird place time of 4:17.19, while sophomore Roland Rudolf was fourthwith a career best and automatic qualifying time of 4:17.44.Not to beout done, senior Tobias Work touched the wall just behind Rudolf withthe fifth fastest time of the day at 4:17.71.Ryan Crete bettered hiscareer 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 atthat point, touching in with a career best time of 4:20.20 to finishfirst in the consolation final of the 500 free.Pedraza was joined byLogan 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 the50 free.Penniman turned in the sixth best time of 19.95 while Smithswam to a personal best time of 20.26 to finish fifth in the consolationfinal, both times served as provisional qualifying times.

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

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

FLORIDA STATE

Swimming

Florida State Women's Swimming And Diving In Third Place After Day Two Of 2008 ACC Championships

Seminole divers finish fourth and sixth on the one-meter while FSU swimmers win three consolation heats.

Atlanta, Ga.- The Florida State women's swimming and diving team used a strong evening of swims plus a pair of outstanding diving performances to put themselves in third place at the 2008 ACC Championships in Atlanta, Ga. FSU has 181.5 points 32.5 points ahead of fourth place Clemson.

The Seminoles had another strong showing on the diving board taking the fourth and sixth positions. Freshman Kat Adham in her ACC Championships debut scored 266.00 points taking fourth and sophomore Aleia Monden grabbed sixth place scoring 253.05. Adham's result is the best individual finish for FSU at the 2008 ACC Championships.

Once again FSU scored strong on a relay finishing fourth in the 200 free relay. The team of sophomore Stevi Steinhauer, seniors Abbie King and Lauren Sparg and sophomore Kylsie Grimes finished with a time of 1:31.97.

Florida State's best result in the pool came in the consolation final of the 50 free where FSU took the top three positions. Steinhauer won the heat (9 th overall) touching the wall in 23.22 and the duo of Grimes and Sparg tied for second (10 th place overall) as both swimmers finished in a time of 23.25. All three of the times are NCAA "B" qualifying times. Florida State had two other swimmers in the 50 free consolations. King (23.42) and freshman Brittany Selts (23.52) finished sixth and seventh (14 th and 15 th overall) respectively.

In the 500 free freshman Jocelyn Phillips (Napa, Cali.) came from behind in the last 100 yards to out-touch a swimmer from Clemson to win the consolation final in a personal best time of 4:49.28. Phillips' time is the second fastest in FSU history and earned the team nine points for her overall finish of ninth. Junior Georgia Holderness finished fifth in the consolation final (13 th overall) touching the wall in 4:54.04. In the bonus consolation final junior Caroline Robertson won the heat (4:54.39 ) while senior Kate Skaggs finished (5:01.80).

Freshman Lowri Tynan took three seconds off her prelim swim in the 200 individual medley to win the consolation heat. Tynan swam a personal best and NCAA "B" qualifying time of 2:01.83 to give the Seminoles nine more crucial points.

Action continues on Friday, February 22 with the Seminoles compete in the 400 individual medley, 100 butterfly, 200 free, 100 breast, 100 back and 400 medley relay. The women's diving team will compete on the three-meter while the men dive on the one-meter board. You can watch the Seminoles compete for the ACC title each evening on www.accselect.com beginning at 7:00 p.m. For meet results, log onto www.seminoles.com .

Florida State Divers Finish One-Two On Three-Meter Board

Terry Horner and Dan Frebel finish atop the podium at 2008 ACC Championships.

Atlanta, Ga.- The Florida State men's divers dominated the three-meter competition Thursday evening placing four athletes in the finals while sweeping the top two positions.

Sophomore Terry Horner (Orlando, Fla.) won the three-meter competition for the first time in his career while junior Dan Frebel turned in a career performance to nab the second position. "It means a lot, lately I haven't been diving as well on the three-meter," Horner said."I've been putting forth a lot of effort and it feels really good to see it all come together." "It feels good to take second place," Frebel said."It's great for the team, it's great for all four of us to get in the finals and for two of us to take first and second is great." Junior Scott Derner finished fifth for the Seminoles, while senior Alex Tilbrook took seventh. "I am so proud of all my boys," FSU diving coach Patrick Jeffrey said."They really get behind each other and Terry [Horner] and Dan [Frebel] really lit it up today." The men will be back in competition on Friday as the Seminoles look to continue its hot streak on the one-meter.Horner is the defending National Champion on the one-meter.

[Last modified February 21, 2008, 23:47:14]