Jan. 23, 2016
With the conference meet just under a month away, the Auburn swimming and diving teams went head-to-head with one of their fiercest competitors in Florida on Saturday morning in Gainesville, Fla. The result was a 154.5-145.5 win for the seventh-ranked men over the third-ranked Gators and a 192-108 loss for the ninth-ranked women.
"It's a big win for us. It's a statement win," Auburn head coach Brett Hawkesaid. "We haven't beaten Florida in five years. It feels good. It's nice to get that swag back were the guys feel like the better team and race like they wanted to win. It was neck-and-neck the whole way. Florida is a great team, don't get me wrong. They are great top to bottom but we had some great individual performances."
Swimming on a long course, better known as the Olympic distance, Auburn was able to pick up nine wins from the men's team and three from the women -- and even more confidence.
The swimming portion of the meet started out strong for both the men's and women's teams as each won the 200 medley relay -- the women taking the top three times and the men the top two.
The next win would take a while to come -- six events worth -- but after that it was another Auburn sweep as Annie Lazor won the 100 breast in an Olympic Trials qualifying time of 1:11.10 and Michael Duderstadt won the men's race in 1:04.44.
Lazor was far from done as she also won the 200 breaststroke in 2:31.66 -- also an Olympic Trials qualifying time -- ahead of second-place finisher and teammate Natasha Lloyd (2:35.17).
Duderstadt also swept the breaststroke events, winning the 200 in 2:23.12, just ahead of teammate and runner-up Jordan Jones (2:23.73).
"Our women breaststrokers were outstanding today, they stole the show for us on the women's side," Hawke said. "On the men's side, Duder (Michael Duderstadt) and Jordan Jones, a senior, just refused to lose. People like that can tip you over the edge sometimes. I thought Jordan was outstanding."
Joe Patching also had multiple individual wins, touching first in the 200 back in 2:04.27 and then in the 200 IM in 2:04.85.
Hugo Morris won the 400 free in 4:02.51 and Luis Martinez -- who has already punched his ticket to Rio 2016 -- won the 100 fly in 54.09 to round out the individual event wins.
The diving well was just as strong where Justin Youtsey led a 1-2-3 sweep on the 1-meter with a 342.15. Scott Lazeroff was second at 325.87 and Pete Turnham third at 313.43. When it was time to take on the 3-meter, Lazeroff took top billing, scoring a 387.68.
"I thought we did a good job, starting off with the sweep on 1-meter," head diving coach Jeff Shaffer said. "This is a very difficult and unique facility to train and compete in but the kids did a great job last night getting a quality workout in. It really helped them today as we got off to a strong start.
"On 3-meter Scott struggled a little with board work during practice but he put it all together and we really needed him to step up for the team," Shaffer said. "The guys did a really great job."
The dual meet win was the Auburn men's team's first over Florida since 2011.
Auburn closes out its dual meet season on Friday, Jan. 29, at home against Florida State and Wisconsin. The meet is set to start at noon from the James E. Martin Aquatics Center and will be available through SECN+. The program will honor its seniors prior to the start.