Florida Women, Indiana Men Win as Newcomers Impress
Florida’s women’s team and Indiana’s men’s squad won their opening dual meet Friday night in Bloomington.
The Gators’ women won by a 170-130 margin, while the Indiana men dominated with a 208-92 victory.
On the men’s side, the Hoosiers took control with a pair of 1-2-3 finishes in the middle of the meet. Freshman Noah Cakir went 53.89 to win the 100 breaststroke, then Max Cahill claimed the 200 butterfly in 1:48.08. Cakir added the 200 breast win in another 1-2-3, the freshman going 1:59.91. Alexei Avakov was second in the 100 and third in the 200.
Owen McDonald won the 100 fly in 47.96 and the 200 individual medley in 1:47.67. Miroslav Knedla was second in that event as he was in the 100 back, and Cakir was third. Raekwon Noel swept the backstroke events. NCAA champion Zalan Sarkany took home the 1,000 and 500 free. Mikkel Lee claimed the 50 free and 100 free. Knedla, McDonald and Lee joined with Travis Gulledge on the winning 200 medley relay.
On 1-meter, Joshua Sollenberger outdueled Florida’s Jesus Gonzalez by 1.57 points with a score of 289.65. Sollenberger scored 343.95 to win 3-meter by more than 33 points in a 1-2-3 Hoosiers finish.
Florida’s only individual win came in the 200 free via newcomer Ahmed Jaouadi. The double world champion went 1:37.42 to win the 200 free, and his time of 4:23.43 in the 500 free was two seconds back of Sarkany’s winning time of 4:21.28.
Florida concluded the meet by going 2:54.53 t win the 400 free relay with the quartet of Devin Dilger, Josh Liendo (42.36), Alex Painter and Scotty Buff.
The distance contingent led Florida’s win on the women’s side. Julie Brousseau went 9:55.79 to win the 1,000 free and 4:51.00 to claim the 500 free. Gracie Weyant and Camille DeBoer were second and third, respectively, in both.
Anita Bottazzo led a sweep of the 100 breast with a time of 59.07. She was third in the 100 fly. Lainy Kruger won the 200 free (1:48.37) and 200 fly (1:59.44) in the front half of the meet. Catie Choate was second in the 100 back and then won the 200 back in 1:54.66 in a 1-2-3 result. Grace Rainey won the 200 breast, and Grace Rabb capped the meet with a win in the 200 IM. Choate, Bottazzo, Beatriz Bezerra and Addison Reese were on the 200 medley relay squad that went 1:37.86.
Indiana swept the top three in both sprint events. Liberty Clark went 22.57 to edge Kristina Paegle by .01 in the 50, then bested her by nearly two seconds in the 100 free with a 48.29. Clark led off the 400 free relay in 48.43, joining Paegle, Grace Hoeper and Mya DeWitt in 3:18.73.
Miranda Grana won the 100 back in 52.09 and the 100 fly in 53.23. She finished second in the 200 IM. Indiana’s Kaylee Bishop scored 255.53 to edge Maria Garcia of Florida by less than a point on 1-meter diving. Garcia’s 308.48 claimed the 3-meter crown.
