Meet of the Week Preview: Auburn at Florida

By Jason Marsteller

PHOENIX, Arizona, January 23. NEXT up in the SwimmingWorldMagazine.com Meet of the Week program is Auburn at Florida. The two perennial powerhouses from the Southeastern Conference will compete in a long course dual meet taking place on Jan. 26.

Here is a quick preview of the match-up:

Date and Time: Saturday, Jan. 26 at 1 p.m.
Location: Gainesville, Florida
Facility: Stephen C. O'Connell Center Natatorium

Auburn's Last Time Out:
The defending national champion Auburn University swimming and diving teams wrapped up their Texas road swing with a trio of wins Saturday at Texas A&M on Jan. 12. Auburn's No. 8-ranked men dominated the No. 20 Aggies, 210-90, while the top-ranked women pulled out wins over No. 6 Texas A&M (155-139) and No. 12 Southern Methodist (218-72).

The women claimed six individual events with wins coming from Micah Martindale (1000 free – 9:47.30), Emily Kukors (200 free – 1:46.77; 200 fly – 1:57.60; 200 IM – 1:59.05), Erica Meissner (200 back – 1:57.36), Maggie Bird (500 free – 4:49.32). They also took home the 400 free relay in 3:19.50.

Meanwhile, the men snared 10 titles: Robert Looney (1000 free – 9:23.31), Cesar Cielo (200 free – 1:38.62), Scott Goodrich (100 back – 48.66), Michael Silva (100 breast – 55.13), Alexei Puninski (50 free – 20.13), Dan Mazzaferro (1m – 378.80), Kohlton Norys (200 back – 1:47.51), Adam Klein (200 breast – 2:00.12), Will Dove (500 free – 4:28.92), Kelly Marx (3m – 343.95). The 200 medley relay also produced a crown with a time of 1:28.53.

Looking forward with Auburn men's head coach Richard Quick:
I think our training is going well. I think we are growing both in competition and in training. We are kind of realizing that we have a good team if everyone will strive to reach their potential on a consistent, daily basis. And, that is what our goal is when we travel to the University of Florida, to continue to grow as a team, to respond to the great competition that Florida presents in a foreign pool. I look for it to be a real opportunity for both the men's and women's team to identify what we need to do to improve and learn more about ourselves as a team.

On swimming long course:
It is the Olympic year and we have a lot of people on this team, both men and women, that are interested in performing real well at the Olympic Trials and the Olympic Games. A lot of the athletes are looking forward to the fact that they get to compete long course. We do not train a lot of long course this time of year, but we do have one eye on the Olympic Games and the other on SECs and NCAAs. So, this is a competition that suits our philosophy for this year.

Looking forward with Auburn co-head coach Dorsey Tierney-Walker:
We're real excited to go down there. They are a very focused team with some great athletes, very well-rounded. We will have some pretty great competition in all the events, so we are really looking forward to it. Competing long course will be a little bit of a change, a nice refresher. We have trained long course, but have not competed in it in a while and I think the team is very excited to see where they are at.

On team's training
We're pretty good. It is difficult this time of year, dealing with an illness here or there, but I think for the most part everybody is getting back into the swing of things. We are switching up the training regimen a little bit, doing some more detail work. But, I think all in all we are adjusting well and looking forward to the championship part of our season.

Florida's Last Time Out:
The University of Florida No. 5 men's and No. 7 women's swimming and diving teams used a total team effort to defeat Southeastern Conference foe No. 21 (M) and No. 24 (W) Louisiana State University, 132-109 on the men's side and 137-94 on the women's side at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center on Jan. 12.

Kristen Beales (1000 free – 10:03.79), Natalie Pike (200 free – 1:47.73; 200 fly – 2:02.12), Stephanie Napier (50 free – 23.36), Stephanie Proud (400 IM – 4:18.26), Caroline Burckle (100 free – 49.72), Carmen Retrum (200 back – 1:59.45) and Sarah Peterson (500 free – 4:58.06) won individual titles for the women, while Samantha Vanderbilt, Burckle, Gemma Spofforth and Napier touched in 1:42.07 to win the 200 medley relay.

Clark Burckle (1000 free – 9:10.53), Roland Rudolf (200 free – 1:39.45; 500 free – 4:26.48), Omar Pinzon (200 back – 1:47.90; 400 IM – 3:51.46), James Walsh (200 fly – 1:48.64) and Bradley Ally (200 breast – 2:02.28) won for the men.

Looking forward with Florida head coach Gregg Troy:
We are excited to having Auburn come in this weekend. It will feature two of the best teams in the country. The meet will be swum long course meters so that our athletes who are focused on the Olympic Trials and international competitions will have one quality meet during the short course season. Swimming the 16-event order in this format should provide for some outstanding swims.

Top 2007-08 Times Comparison:
Men:
50 Free
AUB: 19.32, Jakob Andkjaer
FLA: 20.44, Jos Smith
100 Free
AUB: 42.61, Jakob Andkjaer
FLA: 45.26, Shaune Fraser
200 Free
AUB: 1:38.25, Pascal Wollach
FLA: 1:37.50, Shaune Fraser
500 Free
AUB: 4:27.54, Robert Looney
FLA: 4:24.03, Tobias Work
1000 Free
AUB: 9:19.22, Will Dove
FLA: 9:00.51, Tobias Work
1650 Free
AUB: 15:15.61, Robert Looney
FLA: 15:19.41, Tobias Work
100 Back
AUB: 47.89, Scott Goodrich
FLA: 48.88, Roland Rudolf
200 Back
AUB: 1:46.73, Kohlton Norys
FLA: 1:44.17, Roland Rudolf
100 Breast
AUB: 53.71, David Maras
FLA: 55.78, Clark Burckle
200 Breast
AUB: 2:00.12, Adam Klein
FLA: 2:00.03, Clark Burckle
100 Fly
AUB: 47.37, Jakob Andkjaer
FLA: 48.35, Shaune Fraser
200 Fly
AUB: 1:46.38, Tyler McGill
FLA: 1:46.87, Shaune Fraser
200 IM
AUB: 1:50.11, Tyler McGill
FLA: 1:48.33, Bradley Ally
400 IM
AUB: 3:58.51, Andrew Mitchell
FLA: 3:51.46, Omar Pinzon
200 Free Relay
AUB: 1:22.89
FLA: 1:21.90
400 Free Relay
AUB: 2:56.50
FLA: 2:59.52
800 Free Relay
AUB: 6:39.07
FLA: 6:43.35
200 Medley Relay
AUB: 1:28.25
FLA: 1:29.46
400 Medley Relay
AUB: 3:12.60
FLA: 3:17.34
1M Diving
AUB: 343.95, Kelly Marx
FLA: 291.50, Aaron Leech
3M Diving
AUB: 378.80, Dan Mazzaferro
FLA: 311.85, Aaron Leech

Women:
50 Free
AUB: 22.71, Ava Ohlgren
FLA: 23.29, Stephanie Napier
100 Free
AUB: 48.59, Ava Ohlgren
FLA: 49.72, Caroline Burckle
200 Free
AUB: 1:44.85, Caitlin Geary
FLA: 1:47.39, Caroline Burckle
500 Free
AUB: 4:42.71, Emily Kukors
FLA: 4:44.63, Caroline Burckle
1000 Free
AUB: 9:46.41, Micah Martindale
FLA: 9:41.18, Laurabeth Guenther
1650 Free
AUB: 16:07.93, Maggie Bird
FLA: 16:51.91, Kim Larson
100 Back
AUB: 54.25, Melissa Marik
FLA: 55.25, Samantha Vanderbilt
200 Back
AUB: 1:56.59, Melissa Marik
FLA: 1:57.83, Gemma Spofforth
100 Breast
AUB: 1:02.15, Kara Denby
FLA: 1:02.51, Caroline Burckle
200 Breast
AUB: 2:13.33, Josefin Wade
FLA: 2:14.80, Caroline Burckle
100 Fly
AUB: 53.87, Kara Denby
FLA: 54.77, Julianne Lago
200 Fly
AUB: 1:56.85, Ava Ohlgren
FLA: 2:00.66, Julianne Lago
200 IM
AUB: 1:55.83, Ava Ohlgren
FLA: 2:02.31, Natalie Pike
400 IM
AUB: 4:09.50, Ava Ohlgren
FLA: 4:18.26, Stephanie Proud
200 Free Relay
AUB: 1:32.81
FLA: 1:33.15
400 Free Relay
AUB: 3:16.03
FLA: 3:22.43
800 Free Relay
AUB: 7:09.19
FLA: 7:24.00
200 Medley Relay
AUB: 1:42.04
FLA: 1:42.07
400 Medley Relay
AUB: 3:38.60
FLA: 3:42.42
1M Diving
AUB: 197.50, Courtney Brown
FLA: 281.84, Monica Dodson
3M Diving
AUB: 206.50, Courtney Brown
FLA: 315.15, Monica Dodson

* – denotes meter conversion

MOTW, Auburn at Florida

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