The Florida Gators adapted to Virginia waters just fine last Friday as they faced the Cavaliers in the opening meet of the season for both teams. The Gator men took a 137-101 victory over the Cavaliers, while the women secured a win with 133 points to Virginia's 105. Considering the Gators took fourth place at last year's NCAA Tournament, though, this outcome was not the great disappointment it might have been for the Cavaliers.
"I felt really good in the water," senior Brielle White said. "Racing Florida to open our season [was] a lot of fun. I mean, we lost, but it was an exciting meet with a nice turnout."
The tough meets aren't going to stop, however. After starting two weeks earlier than in previous seasons, Virginia is going to go on to face some of its hardest opponents in the first half of the season.
"I think that for this program to move forward we have to swim the programs that are ranked nationally," Virginia coach Mark Bernardino said. "We know that we've frontloaded our schedule -- we accept that challenge, we look forward to it. Our goal is to swim with pride and see how we stack up against the best of the best."
Another challenge facing Virginia this year comes with the relative youth of the team, especially on the men's side, where 16 of the 26 swimmers are underclassmen. In this case though, facing the tough teams early might prove to be an advantage.
"The more exposure we give our athletes to those tough teams, the faster we'll progress as a team." Bernardino said. "I want this young team -- and it is a young team -- to be exposed as quickly as they can to the highest level of collegiate swimming."
In one event at least, a freshman seems to have already acclimated to college competition at the toughest levels. Jackie Apple, a freshman from New Albany, Ohio, won both the one-meter diving and the three-meter diving, giving her team an 18-point boost. In the three-meter dives, she was 36 points ahead of the second-place finisher from Florida.
In the 200-yard breaststroke, a young swimmer also stood out. Sophomore Vanja Rogulji finished in 1:59.35, almost five seconds ahead of teammate Ryan Hurley, who came in second.
The more experienced members made their own contributions as well, as senior Fran Crippen captured a win for the Cavaliers in both the 1,000-yard freestyle and the 500-yard freestyle. His teammate, junior John Millen, was runner-up in both these events. On the girls' side, senior Rachel Burke took a win in the 1,000-yard freestyle, while junior Rory Schmidt took second.
In the backstroke however, it was Florida senior Ryan Lochte who stole the show, setting a new pool record in both the 100- and the 200-yard races. The 100-yard record was broken while Lochte was swimming a leg of the medley relay, while his time of 1:42.90 in the 200 beat the former pool record by only a tenth of a second.
While the Cavaliers suffered a defeat this time, they're not letting that get them down. After all, the men took fist place in the ACC for the seventh year in a row last year while the women finished in second place.
"We have some strong goals," Bernadino said "We're looking to accomplish those goals, but we're a long way from being where we need to be at the end of the season. It's a long season -- it's a sixth month season. We'll see what happens"
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