In the midst of Georgia-Florida rivalry matchups across multiple different programs over the past weekend, the Georgia swimming and diving teams fell in a dual meet competition to Florida on Oct. 27 in Gainesville, Florida.
Despite a strong performance from both teams, Georgia was slightly outmatched. The No. 9 ranked Georgia men (1-3) fell to the defending SEC champions, No. 3 Florida 175-125, while the No. 13 Georgia women (3-1) suffered their first defeat of the year to the seventh-ranked Florida women 183-117.
Senior Jake Magahey led the Bulldogs with three out of the six victories for the men, beginning the meet with a season-best time of 8:59.36 in the 1,000-yard freestyle. Magahey finished his strong performance with victories in the 200-yard butterfly and 500-yard freestyle.
Georgia’s three other victories from the men came from Tomas Koski in the 200-yard freestyle, Ruard van Renen in the 100-yard backstroke and Zach Hils in the 200-yard individual medley.
In the diving well, freshman Matthew Bray finished second on both of the springboards with season-best scores in each. Bray was narrowly defeated by only .15 points in the 3-meter event.
Senior Zoie Hartman had two of the three Georgia victories in the women’s competition. Hartman swept the breaststroke events, winning both the 100-yard and 200-yard. In addition, she finished second in the 200-yard individual medley.
Juniors Duné Coetzee and Abby McCulloh finished first and second in the 1,000-yard freestyle, with a 9:43.13 time from Coetzee and 9:44.40 from McCulloh. In the 500-yard freestyle, Coetzee finished second and McCulloh third.
In the 200-yard butterfly, junior Mia Abruzzo posted a second-place time of 1:58.96. Other Bulldogs posting second-place finishes included seniors Sloane Reinstein and Julianna Stephens in the 200-yard and 50-yard freestyles, and freshman Helena Jones in the 100-yard freestyle.
Senior Meghan Wenzel placed second in both diving events, including a season-best score of 324.15 in the 3-meter event. Sophomore Hannah Stumpf set her personal best on 3-meter with a score of 302.85.
Georgia will look to get back into the win column this upcoming weekend in Raleigh, North Carolina, where they will compete in a long-course meet versus North Carolina State and Duke on Nov. 3, followed by a traditional short-course meet with NC State on Nov. 4.
