Penn State women's swimming coach Bill Dorenkott summed it up best after losing Saturday's season-opener against the University of Florida at the McCoy Natatorium.
"Florida has an outstanding tradition and an outstanding team," he said. "They out-classed us in every single phase of the event today."
In a meet, which saw Florida set three McCoy pool records and swim five NCAA qualifying times, the No. 7 Gators (4-0) defeated No. 13 Penn State (0-1), 141-87.
Florida showed the Nittany Lions it meant business from the get-go as its 400 medley relay team of Maureen Farrell, Vipa Bernhardt, Cara Teague and Chanta Gibney set the first of three pool records, with a time of 3:44.70, beating the old record of 3:46.24.
The Gators dominated the meet from there, winning all 10 events they scored in and finishing with top times in the three exhibition events.
Sara McLarty and Jamie Reid also set pool records for the Gators.
McLarty's record-breaking race was in the 1000-yard freestyle, with a time of 9:41.53, which shattered the old record of 9:57.30.
Reid's time of 1:58.79 in the 200-yard backstroke was good enough to beat the previous record of 1:59.67.
Also standing out for Florida was Nicole Bolt, who won the one and three-meter springboard competition with scores of 294.52 and 335.25, respectively.
For the Lions, their lack of early-season competition heading into the meet proved to be a setback against the Gators, who had three meets under their belts prior to Saturday.
"It makes a huge difference when you go out and race other teams," Penn State senior Kristen Mikelonis said.
While meets are the high point of each week, Dorenkott said the team needs to emphasize the importance of practices during the week.
"What you see today doesn't happen on Saturday," he said, "it's what you do Monday through Friday. The sport is pretty simple. What you put in is what you get out."
Mikelonis said the team saw their meet as an awakening and will only make the team stronger for future meets.
"It made us mad because we didn't want to lose by that much, or at all," she said.
However, all was not lost for the Lions on Saturday afternoon.
Mikelonis, along with freshman Patty Murphy, were among those who provided a glimpse of hope for Penn State.
Heading into its next meet in two weeks against the University of Virginia, Dorenkott said the Lions have two options: make excuses or get up tomorrow morning and work harder.
"We have to make sure we don't ever put a team in a position like this again," he said.
"We can't embarrass ourselves and Penn State like we did today."
