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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. The Virginia men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams return to action after a month away from competition to swim Wednesday at nationally ranked Florida.
Diving competition is set to begin at 6 p.m., with swimming events commencing with the 200 medley relay at 7 p.m. The meet is being held at UF’s O’Connell Center Natatorium in Gainesville, Fla.
“I think this will be a great test, not so much of our physical skills, but of our mental skills,” Virginia head coach Mark Bernardino said. “We are in the midst of some very hard semester-break training. I think we are going to swim reasonably well given the workload we have been under.”
Virginia last competed Dec. 4-6 at the UVa Invitational, where the men and women combined to break 11 pool, four school and three ACC records. Both the men’s and women’s teams are currently ranked No. 12 in the latest national polls. In dual meets this season, the Cavalier women are 6-0 overall, while the men boast a 6-1 mark with the squad’s only loss coming at Tennessee.
Florida, meanwhile, last participated in the Princeton Invitational along with sending athletes to the 2008 ConocoPhillips USA Swimming Short Course National Championships in early December. The sixth-ranked women are 4-2 overall in dual meet competition, having fallen to Stanford and at home against Georgia. The seventh-ranked men are 4-1 on the year with the only loss coming on the road against Michigan.
“We are certainly going to be competing against some of the best swimmers in the world,” Bernardino continued. “Both of Florida’s teams are, in my opinion, among the top-5 teams in the country and they have one of the most storied traditions of swimming excellence among any school in NCAA history. We are excited to go down there and compete against so many great athletes.”
In the all-time series, Virginia has yet to defeat Florida in dual-meet competition. Both the UF men and women hold a 6-0 advantage over the Cavaliers. Last year in Charlottesville, the Gator men earned a 162-133 win and the Gator women claimed a 169-126 decision in the season-opener.
The match-up between the Cavaliers and Gators will also feature a pair of sisters competing against each other for the first time. Virginia second-year Claire Crippen, a native of Conshohocken, Pa., will be swimming against her younger sister Teresa, a freshman at UF. Claire Crippen is the defending ACC champion and honorable mention All-American in the 400 IM. She also has posted the fastest time in the event this season for the Cavaliers, setting a pool record last month at the UVa Invitational. Teresa Crippen also swims the IM and fly events and similarly holds the fastest times for Florida in the 200 fly and 200 back. The Crippens’ older sister Maddy swam at Villanova (1998-2002) while their older brother Fran swam under Bernardino at UVa (2002-06).