Junior Shaune Fraser (George Town, Cayman Islands) swam a career-best mark and UF record in the 200-yard freestyle (1:31.70) to capture the first individual national championship title of his career. Fraser’s title was the second of the 2009 NCAA campaign for Florida. Following day two of competition in College Station, the Gators are in sixth place in the team standings with 225 points.
“We had a really great day today,” head coach Gregg Troy said. “We had some excellent swims from our first relay to Shaune Fraser, Clark Burckle, Omar Pinzon, Rex Tullius. We really can’t complain, although we should have finished off the 800 free relay a little better. We are in for a dogfight tomorrow. We’re going to have to come back and have another great day of swimming.”
Fraser’s 200 free title was Florida’s third title in the event, the last won by former Gator Adam Sioui at the 2002 NCAA Championships. His Florida record shattered that of Ryan Lochte, who swam a 1:33.07 in 2005. Fraser additionally captured the 200 free title at the 2009 SEC Championship meet in February.
Fraser’s sophomore brother, Brett, additionally represented the Orange and Blue in the 200 free, swimming the consolation heat and improving upon his prelims mark to finish 10th overall, second in the heat, with a time of 1:33.71.
After the quartet of junior Omar Pinzon (Bogota, Colombia), junior Clark Burckle (Louisville, Ky.), senior Bradley Ally (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) and sophomore Brett Fraser (George Town, Cayman Islands), clocked a 1:24.94 for the UF record in the 200-yard medley relay in prelims, Gator senior Rex Tullius (Port Orange, Fla.), Burckle, Pinzon and Fraser swam to a 1:25.45, eighth-place finish in the evening final to kick off the finals session.
One event later, Ally and Burckle combined for 30 points toward the Gators’ overall score after finishing third and fifth in the 400-yard individual medley. Ally, who won the 200 IM in Thursday’s competition, improved upon his prelims time in the 400 IM, 3:40.58, to place third overall with a time of 3:38.20, barely missing the UF record (3:38.15) held by Ryan Lochte. Burckle swam a 3:41.85, just shy of his career-best achieved in prelims for the fifth-place finish and 14 Gator points.
In the last individual event of the evening session, the 100-yard backstroke, Pinzon swam to seventh place (45.99) in the championship heat, while Tullius swam a career-best 45.82 to finish first in the consolation final, ninth overall.
The Gators closed out the second day of competition with a ninth-place finish in the 800-yard free relay. Sophomore Balazs Gercsak (Budapest, Hungary), both Fraser brothers and freshman Jeff Raymond (Davie, Fla.) swam to a time of 6:22.03 in Friday’s last event.
