The final prelims session at the 2015 All-Florida Invite took place in Gainesville on Sunday morning. To kick things off, Ashlee Linn clipped the 2:00 barrier in the 200 back with a 1:59.66. Florida was 1-2 in that event with Sidney Cell clocking a 2:01.63.
Their teammates Natalie Hinds and Taylor Katz kept the ball rolling for the Gators this morning. Hinds cleared 50 seconds with a 49.49 to take the top seed in the 100 free. Katz took a commanding lead through the 200 fly prelims with a 2:02.68.
Linn also went on to win her heat in the 200 breast with a 2:22.70. She’ll be 3rd seed overall behind Paige Scheriger (2:20.83) and Towson’s Jenna Van Camp (2:19.00).
For the men, Jack Blyzinskyj took control of the 200 back with a 1:49.58 this morning. Not far behind was redshirt senior Austin Manganiello in 1:49.75 and Florida State’s Connor Kalisz with a 1:49.84.
Nova Southeastern’s Thiago Sickert swam a 44.68 for the top seed in the 100 free. That was good enough to put him ahead of Florida’s Caeleb Dressel (45.01) and Corey Main (45.49), who went 1-2 in the 50 free on Friday. Also in the mix is FSU’s Jason McCormick (45.73). They’ve set up what should be an exciting race between the top 4 seeds.
Following that event, Dressel posted a 2:08.42 in the 200 breast. His teammate Mark Szaranek, who finished 2nd behind Dressel in the 200 IM earlier, was the fastest qualifier at 2:05.54. Also taking a heat win this morning was NSU’s Anton Lobanov (2:08.97), the NCAA Division II Champion and record holder in this event.
Szaranek took top seed in back to back events with a 1:50.04 in the 200 fly. Also returning for that event was Sickert, who clocked 1:50.59 to move into 2nd ahead of Manganiello (1:50.61).
Why not all of the gators swam this weekend?