Florida Men, Women Leading After Day One of Pinch A Penny All Florida Invitational

GAINESVILLE, Florida, September 27. IN one of the more competitive season opening events, the host Florida Gators jumped out to leads in the men’s and women’s competitions as part of the Pinch A Penny All Florida Invitational.

The meet features six programs from the state of Florida: Florida State, Miami, Florida Gulf Coast, Florida Southern, North Florida and Nova Southeastern.

“It was a good way to start the season,” head coach Gregg Troy said. “It highlighted some of the things that we’ve worked on. I am really happy how everyone raced across the board. It wasn’t necessarily that they were fast, but it is how they raced across the board. I think at this time of year that is what you want to see.”

After day one, the Florida men lead second-place Florida State 374-272, while the Florida women lead second-place FSU 342-251.

Elizabeth Beisel demonstrated some senior leadership by winning a pair of individual events this evening for the Gators. The Olympian cleaned up with wins in the 500-yard free (4:45.04) and 200-yard IM (2:00.53).

When all was said and done, seven NCAA provisional marks went up on the board. Kaitlyn Dressel had the top day for Florida State, surging to an NCAA B cut of 22.92 in the women’s 50-yard freestyle for the win after blasting a 22.86 during prelims.

Meanwhile, Marcin Cieslak (1:46.00) and Eduardo Solaeche-Gomez (1:46.76) clocked B cuts in the 200 IM with Carlos Omana touching in 1:49.09 in the 200 IM during prelims for a B cut of his own. Dan Wallace snatched the 500 free title in 4:23.09 for a B cut of his own.

One of the more anticipated debuts went to Mitch D’Arrigo, the Italian who wound up as a surprising Florida Gators after changing his commitment away from Virginia during the summer. He took third in the 500 free (4:26.05).

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