COLLEGE STATION, Texas — The Florida men's swimming team ended
Auburn's streak of 16 straight SEC Championships on Saturday night.
Auburn's
SEC run was the third longest streak for a single program in conference
history. The UF men finished first with 1,408 points and had four
individual championships and one relay championship.
“It's great
for the guys,” UF coach Gregg Troy said. “We have been chasing Auburn
and nipping at their heels every year, and we've been close a couple of
them. I think this kind of takes us over the top from the standpoint
that it gets the monkey off our back. It's a good building point towards
the NCAA meet and it's not an end in itself, but it certainly is a good
conference win.”
This is the 34th SEC title for the men's team,
the most of any school in the conference as Auburn is the next closest
with 18. Florida last won the SEC Championship in 1993, breaking a
20-year streak and having finished runner-up for 11 years. The Gators
collected four titles, had 10 top three finishers and 27 top eight
finishes. Junior Marcin Cieslak led the team with two titles as he won
in both the 100 and 200 fly.
“The SEC is always competitive,” said
Troy. “When you add two good teams like Missouri and Texas A&M,
this meet was actually very comparable with the NCAA meet a couple of
years ago in a lot of events.”
UF's women finished third with
1,190.5 points. The Georgia women won their fourth straight SEC
Championship and Texas A&M finished second. The Gator women had
three individual titles, as junior Elizabeth Beisel won the 400 IM and
200 back for the third straight year and freshman Natalie Hinds won the
100 fly in the nation's best time.
“We are really fortunate to
have the great staff we do here at Florida,” Troy said. “The other
coaches, the kids came from every different training group and did a
great job. Martyn Wilby, Anthony Nesty, Leah Stancil, Donnie Craine with
the divers and Steve Jungbluth with the sprinters, they all did a great
job with the swimmers.”
The Gators finished the final night of
competition at the SEC Swimming & Diving Championships adding two
more titles to their collection to give them eight total. Beisel won the
women's 200 back and sophomore Matt Elliott won his first SEC title,
finishing first in the men's 200 breast.
