Friday’s championship heats are set to begin at 5:00 p.m. and will conclude swimming for Florida this fall.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Florida men’s swimming and diving completed the final prelim session of the Auburn Fall Invitation on Friday morning. The Gators will jump back into competition at 5:00 p.m. with the top 1,650 free heat, followed by championship and consolation heats of events swam in the morning session. Platform diving’s single round is set to begin at 2:00 p.m.
Overall, UF would post the top time in three prelims, highlighted by Eric Friese’s new 100 free lifetime-best and B-cut effort of 42.95.
Kevin Vargas also claimed a morning heat, touching first in the 200 breast with a B-cut swim of 1:57.76, just one second off his lifetime-best set at last year’s SEC Championships in Auburn.
Overall, Florida would notch the top-four efforts in the 200 fly, led by the fastest time of 1:46.56 by Kieran Smith. Dillon Hillis finished behind Smith to claim second-place with an effort of 1:47.01. Jace Crawford (1:47.13) and Miguel Cancel (1:47.63) rounded out the top four and will head join Smith and Hillis in the final.
Florida will have an additional six competitors join Friese in the 100 free tonight after a handful of top-eight efforts. Adam Chaney secured the runner-up spot with a swim of 44.17, with Trey Freeman coming behind him in third, just .23 seconds off the freshman’s finish.
Isaac Davis, Jorge Depassier and Will Davis all finished within a quarter of a second within each other, claiming spots four through six. Alfonso Mestre notches a spot in the championship final with his eighth-place effort of 44.90. Mitchell Meyer placed 16th in the event with a swim of 45.61.
In the opening event of the morning, Robert Finke and Cancel finished .45 second apart to post the second and third-fastest times of the heat. Trevor McGovern and Ethan McCloud also finished next to each one another in sixth and seventh and will also hit the water in the championship final.
The third-fastest effort in the 200 breast was Mateusz Dubas, who tallied an effort of 1:59.10. Amro Al-Wir and Dylan Brisco would finish behind Vargas and Dubas in fourth and fifth to earn a spot in the final.
What’s Next
The swimming portion of Florida’s fall slate will be complete at the conclusion of Friday’s finals session. Both men’s and women’s divers will travel to Coral Gables on Dec. 2-4 at the Miami Diving Invitational as the program’s final competition of 2020.
The team will be back in action on Jan. 9, 2021 in their first and final home meet of the season against SEC rival Texas A&M, before traveling back to Auburn to face the Tigers in a dual meet on Jan. 23.
Follow the Gators:
| FloridaGators.com<file:///C:/Users/RyanS/Desktop/FloridaGators.com> | Twitter<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__twitter.com_GatorsSwimDv&d=DwIFAg&c=sJ6xIWYx-zLMB3EPkvcnVg&r=o5LKAX7slotfFMyE71jI7L22NYBIi1-KbRGNSXudTPo&m=T9hrPkE5LuMd6Ybnv71DL_B8Wfw3shBz_bBW9bVIgKg&s=q1vmSoPjWjYu7tmk25Ch–PLEvH3ruipelt0lQ4Ubtw&e= > | Instagram<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.instagram.com_gatorsswimdv_&d=DwIFAg&c=sJ6xIWYx-zLMB3EPkvcnVg&r=o5LKAX7slotfFMyE71jI7L22NYBIi1-KbRGNSXudTPo&m=T9hrPkE5LuMd6Ybnv71DL_B8Wfw3shBz_bBW9bVIgKg&s=3wXJj7iLbrxg_ketPInuFylnsFxNKWRF0Wvth0NIAvQ&e= > | Facebook<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.facebook.com_GatorsSwimDv_&d=DwIFAg&c=sJ6xIWYx-zLMB3EPkvcnVg&r=o5LKAX7slotfFMyE71jI7L22NYBIi1-KbRGNSXudTPo&m=T9hrPkE5LuMd6Ybnv71DL_B8Wfw3shBz_bBW9bVIgKg&s=3Bm8yYxei4c6eDQptpkUTk7BcbMLtOaVqu4GUEkccH4&e= > |
