Florida A&M’s men’s and women’s swim teams competed hard despite being outnumbered by more than 30 swimmers came up short Saturday at Florida State’s Morcom Aquatic Center.
With only nine swimmers combined participating in the meet, the swimmers for FAMU gave a valid effort but were simply overmatched. Florida gulf coast brought 35 women swimmers and handled the Rattlers’ squad with ease.
Nine rattler swimmers didn’t participate per NCAA rules but plan to compete in the next swim competition.
“It’s a tough loss, but numbers will always help when it comes to swimming,” Bria Bennett said.
Bennett, 19, got a second place finish in the women’s 100 meter butterfly event. The margin of victory was more than seventy points because of the lack of swimmers.
The team was looking to compete well but event times were a big issue for the girls.
“We wanted to see times improve but they dropped, and that’s not good,” head coach Jorge Olaves said.
The team had four swimmers that dropped times in comparison to the previous meet against University of North Florida.
The swimmers found themselves in back to back events throughout the competition.
“We must improve on our strength and conditioning to help with stamina,” Olaves said.
The men’s team fought hard but gathered minimal points with several last place finishes.
“We really needed this trial meet,” Quintavious Brown said.
Brown, 18, was one of the five male swimmers that did not participate in the weekend’s completion. The freshman from Atlanta was at the meet and wanted to compete but was unable to.
This is coach Olaves first year back after leading the Rattlers to a 2002 HBCU national championship.
“We are a rebuilding team and these losses are learning experiences for us,” Olaves said.
He said with added practice and contribution from freshmen, the team will improve in upcoming events.