Florida at Georgia (Men & Women)
On Saturday, the gridiron version of Florida vs. Georgia goes down in Jacksonville, but on Friday afternoon these two SEC rivals will serve up a great warm-up in the pool in Athens.
This meet will have a bit of a pall over it, as the Gators will be without their leader Teresa Crippen. The Florida program was devastated by the passing of her brother, Fran, but given his spirit and attitude, he will surely be an inspiration to the team.
The Georgia women (1-0) are coming off of a hard-fought win over North Carolina, and the Florida women (1-0) won a nailbiter over Virginia two weeks ago.
Florida coach Gregg Troy said in a pre-meet press conference that he was going to swim some swimmers in different events than they might usually swim, specifically to break up the Georgia distance juggernaut. Georgia’s 71 meet home-winning streak will be put to the test early this year against the defending National Champs, but it’s unlikely that Florida will be able to knock them off without Crippen.
On the men’s side, Georgia (0-1) is coming off of a big loss against a fast-rising North Carolina team, though they set several Nationally-ranked times. The Florida men lost a tight meet against Virginia, albeit it without three of their four best swimmers, Brett Fraser, Marco Loughran, and Sebastian Rousseau, who were away competing at the Commonwealth Games.
With both teams at full-strength, this should be a great showdown. This meet will be absolutely LOADED with great individual matchups. Mark Dylla and Matt Bartlett from Georgia will face off with Sebastian Rousseau in the 200 fly, with all three coming off of NCAA finals appearances last year.
In the IM’s, Georgia will bring Billy Cregar. Rousseau again will likely match up in the 400. In the 200 free, it will be a matchup of experience, in defending National Champion Conor Dwyer, versus youth, in Georgia’s star freshman Jameson Hill. Those two represent the first and fourth best times in the nation so far this season. I like the well-seasoned Florida men, back at full strength, to beat Georgia. Three of their stars just recently came off of a taper for the Commonwealth Games, and those swimmers will likely be shooting for NCAA qualifying times here. That should be enough to carry the Gators through.
Clemson at South Carolina
The Clemson Tigers continue their farewell tour as this is likely the last time they will swim at in-state cross-conference rival South Carolina before their program is fully phased out following the 2011-2012 season. Despite losing a few swimmers to graduation, and more than a few recruits, Clemson is still putting together a nice season so far, with both the men and women taking lopsided victories over Davidson.
The South Carolina Gamecocks are having a similarly impressive season, with the men going 1-0 in dominating Western Kentucky, and the women getting wins over Western Kentucky and Vanderbilt to sit at 2-0.
In many of the races in this meet, the two teams will be closely matched. The Men’s 200 medley should be a barn-burner, as the two teams have season-best times around 1:33.8 that sit only a tenth of a second apart. On the women’s side, the 50 free should be an even more exciting race than normal between SC’s Bridget Halligan and Clemson’s Meg Anderson.
Other races, however, will be more lopsided; notably the 100 breaststrokes, where South Carolina should dominate in an ugly way. The SC men have a phenomenal young British breaststroker named Robert Cave. The sophomore has already gone a 56.83 in the 100 breaststroke, and is a name to watch for the future on the international scene.
South Carolina will surprise a lot of people this season as a good team in a strong SEC, and they should win both here.
This meet kicks off at 5 PM Eastern time on Friday.
Tennessee at Kentucky
The Tennessee Volunteers will head to Kentucky Saturday morning at 10 Eastern time for a showdown with the Kentucky Wildcats.
The Tennessee women stand at 2-0, with the Kentucky women sitting at 2-1 after a loss to Indiana. These two programs are at wildly different spots in their development. Tennessee lost one of the best swimmers in program history after last season, but have a highly impressive young group that will be quick to get them back to the top. Kentucky, on the other hand, is a team that is still searching for identity and leadership.
Tennessee is led by their star backstroker Jennifer Connolly, who has gone a season best of 54.61 in the 100 back, good for 7th in the nation.
The best race of the meet will be the 400 free relay. Tennessee will have the two best swimmers in the race (Lindsay Gendron and Kate McNeilis), but Kentucky has a lot more depth than the Volunteers (against Indiana, all four swimmers were 52.1 or better). This is Tennessee’s race to lose, and will be counting on 17-year old freshman Lauren Solernu (or her replacement) to go sub-53 to hold of Kentucky; the Wildcats will need a 51-low from Chelsea Peterson to take down the Volunteers.
On the men’s side, Kentucky (0-3) is still trying to recover from losing the best senior class that they have had in recent memory, if ever, and are struggling early on this season. Tennessee (2-0) is led by a Hungarian monster in sophomore Norbert Kovacs.
Against Louisville, the 2008 Olympian took triple wins in a brutal 200 fly, 500 free, and 1000 free schedule. His 200 fly time of 1:48.42 from that meet is the current fifth best time in the nation.
Though Kentucky doesn’t have the same firepower as they did last season, they are as good as ever in the sprint events. Their 200 medley was strong against Indiana, finishing in a 1:32, and they have three sprinters at 21.0 or better already on the early season.
Other Meets
LSU at Tulane (Friday, 7PM Eastern)
Florida State at LSU (Saturday, Noon Eastern)
Unfortunately, UGA women will be short their best diver, Hannah Moore. Her father passed away last weekend from a heart attack.
Michelle King was good, but best in the program’s history. That title belongs to Christine Magnuson, no questions asked! I assume she just slipped your mind since she’s at Zona now. Agree that Georgia can definitely take Florida without Crippen. If Florida wins, you know they will be the team to beat (if they’re not already) in March.