NCAA Div. I: Florida Sweeps Florida Atlantic

GAINESVILLE, Fla., February 8. THE University of Florida men's and women's swimming teams closed out their dual-meet season by defeating intra-state rival Florida Atlantic Saturday at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center Natatorium.

The Lady Gators beat the Owls, 133-115 while the men's team defeated FAU, 150-100.

The FLorida women won nine events and swam top times in the five events they exhibitioned in the second half of the meet. The men's team won 10 of 11 events and swam top times in two of three events they exhibitioned at the end.

On the women's side, the Gators finished with the top two spots in all but four races and swam three NCAA provisional qualifying times.

The meet began with both of the Gator men's and women's 200-yard medley relay teams finishing with the top two spots in each race. The women's relay team of senior Renate duPlessis (Capetown, South Africa), freshman Vipa Bernhardt (Bad Hersfeld, Germany), senior Cara Teague (Sugar Land, Texas) and junior Chantal Gibney (Dublin, Ireland) won the event and finished with a provisional qualifying time of 1:42.28.

The winning men's 200-yard medley relay team consisted of sophomore Gabriel Mangabeira (Piratininga, Brazil), sophomore Will Ratliff (Mt. Sterling, Ky.), sophomore Adam Sioui (Ontario, Canada) and freshman Nick Borreca (Honolulu, Hawaii).

On the women's side, duPlessis won the 200-yard backstroke with a provisional time of 2:01.03. Senior Kim Ecott (Cooper City, Fla.) won the 200-yard butterfly (2:04.81) and also swam a collegiate best time time of 4:57.96, finishing with the top time in the 500-yard freestyle as an exhibition swimmer. Teague also won the 100-yard freestyle (52.34) to finish out her career in the O'Connell Center pool with a victory.

Junior Sara McLarty (Deland, Fla.) touched the wall 13 second before the next competitor to win the 1,000-yard freestyle with a time of 9:47.13. Bernhardt swam her sixth provisional time of the season in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:02.31.

Florida diver Maureen McGinty (Orlando, Fla.) qualified for the NCAA Diving Zones on the one-meter springboards with a score of 278.02.

On the men's side, three of five seniors each won events. Matt Yacco (Fairfield, Conn.) won a career-best two events at his last home meet. Yacco placed first in the 1,000-yard freestyle in 9:24.28 and later in the meet in the 500-yard freestyle in 4:37.09. Ian Chadsey (Reston, Va.) also won the 100-yard breaststroke in 56.91, Scott Schultz (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) won the 100-yard freestyle in 45.57 and Philip Norris (Longwood, Fla.) won the 200-yard breaststroke in 2:02.90.

Other winners for the Gators included: junior Carlos Jayme (Goias, Brazil) in the 200-yard freestyle (1:39.79); junior Chris Kellam (Mt. Juliet, Tenn.) in the 100-yard backstroke (49.25); sophomore Justin Zumsteg (Rochester, Minn.) in the 200-yard butterfly (1:51.71) and Mangabeira in the 50-yard freestyle (20.86).

The Gators will have a week off before they travel to Auburn for the 2003 Southeastern Conference Championships, Feb. 19-22. Florida's women are defending champs. The men were runners-up to Auburn last season.

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