Jan. 20, 2018
Aly Tetzloff and Carly Cummings combined to win five individual events as the Auburn women's swimming and diving teams won at Florida for the first time since 2006 on Saturday. The No. 12 Auburn women knocked off the No. 16 Florida women, 160.5-139.5, for back-to-back dual meet wins over the Gators for the first time in over a decade.
"The women had a strong meet," Auburn head coach Brett Hawke said. "I felt like there were some standouts but there were also some role players that really helped us get the win today as well."
Tetzloff, who has led Auburn in individual wins this season, picked up another three on Saturday, winning the 100 back (53.14), the 100 free (48.72) and the 200 IM (1:59.12), matching her career-best time in the 100 back.
"Aly has the mindset that she wants to win every race that she's in," Hawke said. "That's a fantastic mindset to have and she's a very confident girl right now."
Just a freshman, Cummings has been on the cusp of winning multiple events numerous times this year and finally broke through on Saturday, sweeping the breaststroke events. She won the 100 in 1:02.80 and the 200 in 2:15.65.
"Carly is such a competitor and that's why she was recruited," associate head coach for women Lauren Hancock said. "In high school she was able to go back-to-back-to-back events at a high-level meet and compete in all those events. She will go head-to-head with people and she will do whatever it takes to get her hand on the wall first and she did that multiple times for us today."
Erin Falconer earned her fourth B cut and second win of the season in the 200 free with a winning time of 1:47.89, which was a season-best and the second-fastest time by an Auburn swimmer this season in the event.
Ashton Ellzey earned her third win in the 50 free this season in a time of 22.61.
"We knew going in that our second, third and fourth girls were going to play a big factor in how we did overall and that was definitely true from the get-go," Hancock said. "Girls that were in outside lanes really stepped up, for example Lauren Dunn in the 100 freestyle (fifth ÃÆ'Æ'¢ÃƒÆ'¢'¬" 51.51) and the 100 breaststroke (fifth ÃÆ'Æ'¢ÃƒÆ'¢'¬" 1:05.80). Brooke Malone got fourth in the 100 breaststroke (1:05.54), Sarah Margaret (Cimino) got fifth in the 100 fly (57.66) and another freshman, Jewels Harris, swam incredible in both butterflys (200 ÃÆ'Æ'¢ÃƒÆ'¢'¬" third ÃÆ'Æ'¢ÃƒÆ'¢'¬" 2:00.91, 100 ÃÆ'Æ'¢ÃƒÆ'¢'¬" second ÃÆ'Æ'¢ÃƒÆ'¢'¬" 55.64).
"We knew we were strong at the top, and so was Florida, but ultimately it came down to the depth that we have and that is a testament to how strong this women's team has become over the last two or three years," Hancock said.
Alison Maillard earned a win on the 3-meter and scored a personal-best on the 1-meter in the diving well. Her score on the 1-meter (303.23) netted her a runner-up finish while her 3-meter score (329.03) gave her five wins on the board this season.
"Alison was real steady," Auburn diving coach Jeff Shaffer said. "She gave up a little bit of DD to the Florida diver and it was real close on 1-meter. She was behind going into the last dive on 3-meter and the Florida diver missed her back twister and Alison did decent inward two-and-a-half to win, which was encouraging."
Auburn's women, which had defeated Florida, 197-103, last season at Auburn, last won back-to-back dual meets over the Gators in 2006 and 2007, which concluded an 11-meet stretch of Auburn wins over Florida.
The No. 12 Auburn men earned four individual wins on the day with Pete Turnham leading the way in the diving well and Zach Apple and Tommy Brewer each getting it done between the lane lines.
Turnham went 2-for-2 on the springboard, winning the 1-meter with a 352.20 and the 3-meter with a 376.28. Turnham also won the 3-meter in the team's last dual meet (at Texas) and has now won the 1-meter three times this season.
"Pete was solid and had two solid scores," Shaffer said. "The only thing we need to focus on is being a little cleaner on finishing dives. We have three weeks now prior to conference and it will give us an opportunity to do that. I like where we are."
Apple claimed a second straight win in the 100 free, touching in 43.50, while Brewer won the 200 breast for the second straight meet, getting to the wall in 1:59.38.
No. 4 Florida earned the dual meet win, outscoring Auburn, 183-114.
"There were some good performances but at the end of the day we just got beat by a better team," Hawke said. "We are going to come back in three weeks and face that team again and I guarantee we are going to be much better than we were today."
SEC Network will broadcast Saturday's meet on Sunday, Jan. 21 at 6 p.m. CT.
Auburn will have one final tune-up before the SEC Championships when it plays host to the Auburn Invitational, Feb. 2-4. Other teams expected to compete are Alabama, Florida and Florida State.