UF Women’s Swimming & Diving: Dressel’s Lifetime-Best Leads Gators on Day Four of SEC’s
Photo by Courtney Culbreath
Courtesy of UF Athletic Association
Dressel reeled in a silver medal in the 100 back with a new personal-best swim on Friday evening.
Sherridon Dressel’s personal-best swim in the 100 back highlighted No. 7 Florida’s finals session on Friday night of the 2020 Southeastern Conference Championships at the James E. Martin Aquatics Center.
Dressel, who already set a personal best this week during her third-place finish in the 100 fly, earned a runner-up finish in the 100 back A-final in personal-best fashion.
Her time of 50.64 cut .29 seconds off her previous-best swim set last year at the 2019 SEC Championships and still puts her in ownership of the second-fastest event swim in program history, missing the school record by just .18 seconds. Additionally, the effort meets the A-cut standard for the event.
In the final event of the session, the 400 medley relay of Emma Ball, Vanessa Pearl, Dressel, and Bella Garofalo finished in fourth place with their combined swim of 3:31.13.
The effort will go down as the third-fastest time in Gator history in the event and gives the group an A-cut. Garofalo, serving as the anchor, hit a 100 free split of 47.98.
Through four days, Florida remains in second-place behind Tennessee, with 720.5 points. The Lady Vols lead the competition with an overall tally of 817 through 30 events. Texas A&M, the four-time defending champion, sits in third with 713 points.
Gator Splashes
 *  Emma Ball was Florida’s second 100 back A-qualifier after setting a new personal best and the third-fastest swim in UF history in the prelims. She would go on to earn a sixth-place finish in the finals with a time of 52:04.
 *  After each setting new personal bests in the morning session, the trio of Allie Piccirillo, Nikki Miller, and Jillian Hatch all would go on to improve on their times in the evening.
   *  Piccirillo led the way with a third-place finish in the B-final with a swim of 1:56.70, besting her morning swim by .47.
   *  Miller and Hatch both swam in the C-final, with Miller finishing in fourth (1:58.71) and Hatch finishing behind her with a sixth-place effort of 1:59.34
 *  A second-place 100 back C-final finish was earned by Rosie Zavaros with a new personal-best swim of 53.24. She would improve on her morning time by .11 seconds, which stood as her previous best heading into the evening session.
Quotables
Head coach Jeff Poppell- “We had another great day today with some fantastic performances by our women. Sherridon’s 2nd-place finish in the 100 back was a strong performance, just missing our school record, and sets her up nicely for NCAAs. We’re presently in a tight battle in the team standings with four other teams and need to come in tomorrow morning ready to roll!”
Gator Medals
Day One- Bronze, 200 Medley Relay (Dressel, Ball, Garofalo, Pearl- third-fastest in school history)
Day Three- Silver, 400 IM- Vanessa Pearl, Silver- 3-Meter- Elizabeth Perez, Bronze- 100 fly, Sherridon Dressel
Day Four- Silver, 100 Back, Sherridon Dressel (personal-best swim, remains second-fastest in school history)
Standings
1. Tennessee-817
2. Florida- 720.5
3. Texas A7M- 713
4. Kentucky- 701.5
5. Georgia- 692
6. Auburn- 560
7. Alabama- 526
8. Missouri- 363
9. South Carolina- 352
10. LSU- 318
11. Arkansas- 299
12. Vanderbilt- 120
What’s Next
The final day of competition will begin at 10:30 a.m. ET with women’s 200 back prelims. The remainder of the morning prelims will include the 100 free, 200 breast and the women’s platform.
Multiple timed 1,650 free finals will begin at 2:15 p.m., with the rest being swam with the evening finals.
The last finals session will begin at 6:30 p.m. ET with the same event events as the preliminary, with the addition to a 400 free relay to close out the competition.