Alfonso Mestre Claims Distance Wins, Balanced Florida Men’s Team Takes Down Virginia

Alfonso Mestre -- Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

Alfonso Mestre Claims Distance Wins, Balanced Florida Men’s Team Takes Down Virginia

As the Virginia women put up some swift times in a win over Florida, another matchup of ranked opponents was occurring in the same pool, and in the men’s meet, the Gators came out triumphant over the Cavaliers by a 189-to-111 final score as seven different Florida swimmers recorded at least one first-place finish. Florida finished third at last year’s NCAA Championships, but the Gators are retooling this year with world champions Bobby Finke and Kieran Smith having moved on from college swimming. But Florida got a big pickup this year in Josh Liendo, a Commonwealth Games gold medalist and World Championships medalist this summer.

The standout performer in the meet was senior Alfonso Mestre, who led a pair 1-2-3 finishes for Florida in the 1000 freestyle (9:06.91) and 500 free (4:21.70). The top showdown of the day came in the 50 free, where Liendo swam the top time in the nation so far this year at 19.27 to beat out Virginia’s Matt King (19.42, sixth-ranked nationally). Trey Freeman, a prelims swimmer on the U.S. men’s world-title-winning 800 free relay this year, captured first place in the 200 free for Florida in 1:36.14, and the 100 backstroke went to Adam Chaney in 47.65.

Mason Laur swam a time of 1:46.55 in the 200 butterfly to take first place in a field where the top three swimmers (including Florida’s Joaquin Gonzalez Pinero and UVA’s Josh Fong and Kamal Muhammad) were separated by just three tenths. Eric Friese won the 100 fly in 46.78, with Liendo just behind (47.05), and in the 200 IM, Kevin Vargas used a scintillating final 50 yards of freestyle to overtake Virginia’s Muhammad and Noah Nichols and win in 1:47.15. Vargas trailed Muhammad by more than a second with 50 yards to go, but he finished in a ridiculous 25.01 split. Florida’s Elisha Dees won 1-meter diving (298.65), and Christopher Donald took first in 3-meter (345.60).

Virginia had a chance to score a big win in the 200 medley relay at the start of the meet, but the Cavaliers squad, which touched more than a second ahead of Florida’s top group, was disqualified, leaving Chaney, Julian Smith, Friese and Liendo as the winners in 1:25.94. Both Chaney and Friese returned from last year’s national-title-winning group in this event. Later on, Macguire McDuff, Liendo, Friese and Alberto Mestre (older brother of Alfonso) won the 400 free relay in 2:52.24.

For Virginia, Nichols swam the third-quickest time in the country in the 100 breaststroke at 52.23, and then he won the 200 breast in 1:55.00 to move into a tie for fifth place nationally. King, who tied for first in the 100-meter free at U.S. Nationals, cruised to the 100 free win in 42.68, and he later led off Virginia’s 400 free relay in 42.46, which ranks him behind Arizona State’s Grant House as the second-fastest swimmer in the country. In the 200 back, Virginia’s Jack Aikins held off a late charge from Chaney to take the win, 1:46.06 to 1:46.20.

Results

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