No. 4 Florida Women’s Swimming and Diving heading to NCAA Championships

Florida Women’s Swimming and Diving is getting ready to compete in the NCAA Championships in Greensboro, North Carolina starting Thursday.

The Gators have 12 competitors, with six returning from last year’s championships. Florida is tied for sixth of all the schools this season in number of qualifiers.

In swimming events, juniors Natalie Hinds, Ashlee Linn, Lindsey McKnight, Taylor Roy, and Jessica Thielmann; sophomores Autumn Finke, Taylor Katz, and Alyssa Yambor-Maul; redshirt freshmen Georgia Hohmann, and Theresa Michalak; and freshman Amelia Maughan will be competing this weekend.

Florida coach Gregg Troy is confident in the talent and ability of the swimmers in the meet.

“Natalie Hinds has been a team leader all along and she’s one of the best sprinters in the country, so we feel pretty good about her. Jess Thielmann on the other end in the freestyle events. We’ve got some younger girls that have come along since they’ve been in school, and Ashlee Linn’s been tremendous in the backstroke.”

The Gators qualified in all five relay events, which they finished ninth or higher in last year. Florida is also coming in to the championships holding 12 of the top 16 times in the country.

Natalie Hinds holds three of those times. She has the 10th highest time in the 50 Free, the third highest time in the 100 Free, and the seventh highest time in the 100 Fly.

“Each year she does it she gets a little more self confident with what she’s doing, has a better feel for what’s going on.” Troy said of Hinds. “So we’re hoping she’s finally arrived at a situation where she feels very comfortable in the environment and is excited and looking forward, but everything we’ve seen has been tremendous to this point.”

The top times held by the Gators are:

50 Free – Natalie Hinds, 10th (21.90)
100 Free – Natalie Hinds, 3rd (47.26)
200 Free – Amelia Maughan, 13th (1:44.68)
500 Free – Jessica Thielmann, 5th (4:36.62)
1,650 Free – Jessica Thielmann, 3rd (15:47.95)
200 Back – Ashlee Linn, 13th (1:52.62)
100 Fly – Natalie Hinds, 7th (51.70)
200 Fly – Taylor Katz, 8th (1:54.44)
200 IM – Theresa Michalak, 8th (1:56.09)
200 IM – Lindsey McKnight, 9th (1:56.16)
200 IM – Ashlee Linn, 11th (1:56.40)
400 IM – Jessica Thielmann, 13th (4:07.90)

One diver qualified for the championships, junior Kahlia Warner. She will compete in the one-meter, three-meter, and platform events, making her the first female diver for Florida to compete in any NCAA diving event since 2011.

Warner set a program record of 326.45 in the platform finals at the SEC Championships. In the diving regionals she placed third with a combined prelim and final score of 575.55.

“We’re in a scenario where we can score in almost every event in the meet, and we feel really good about being across the board,” Troy says, “but Kahlia’s diving is going to be key in how successful we are.”

The NCAA Championships will get started on Thursday and last through Saturday. Coverage of events on Friday and Saturday will be available on ESPN3.

Click here to listen to head coach Gregg Troy talk about the team:

Troy talks about which swimmers he expects to perform well

Troy talks about Natalie Hinds and her experience in the championships

Troy talks about Kahlia Warner and her impact in diving

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