The University of Tampa men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams sit atop the standings halfway through the Nova Southeastern Shark Invite in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Tampa’s men broke three school records over the first two days of competition, and on the women’s side Heather Glenday posted an NCAA “A” cut in the 1000 free, one of two A cuts posted at the meet.
The four-day meet started Saturday and runs through Tuesday.
Women’s Meet
The very first event of the meet saw two NCAA “A” cuts fall in a tight 1000 free battle (the NCAA does set “A” times in the 1000 free at the Division II level). Florida Southern’s Alli Crenshaw won the event in 10:00.44, well under the A standard of 10:02.96. She was raced closely by Heather Glenday of Tampa, who went 10:01.75.
Behind those two, the next three spots went to Florida International swimmers, which is a pretty good microcosm of how the women’s meet has gone so far. Florida Southern has won nearly every women’s event so far, often in close races over Tampa, but the Tampa Spartans still lead by piling up second places and rolling on depth. Then there’s Florida International, which is actually sitting second, ahead of Florida Southern, based on superior depth and some big performances out of IMer Sonia Perez.
Perez won the 200 and 400 IMs on the first two days of competition, going 2:05.51 Saturday to win the 200 and following that up with a meet-record 4:20.58 Sunday in the 400.
Other than that, though, the wins have been nearly all Florida Southern. Crenshaw won that 1000 free to open things up Saturday night, and also took home the 200 free in 1:50.20 on Sunday in another close race with Tampa’s Glenday (1:50.69). Perez was third for FIU.
Kelsey Gouge won the 50 free in 23.67, getting her hand on the wall just before Magdalena Baranowska of Lynn University, who went 23.71. Baranowska did take home the 100 fly win for Lynn on day two, going 55.36, a new meet record for the Polish freshman.
Florida Southern has swept the relays thus far. The 200 medley team of Lauren Reynolds, Kelsey Gouge, Alex Ballard and Cassie Ley went 1:45.49 to win the event, which closed out Saturday night’s session. Gouge, Reynolds and Ley then kicked off Sunday’s session by joining Alli Crenshaw for the 200 free relay win in 1:35.16. Finally, Reynolds, Gouge, Ballard and Crenshaw combined to go 3:50.90 in a winning 400 free relay effort later that day.
Current Team Scores
1. The University of Tampa 690.5
2. Florida International University 622
3. Florida Southern College 578
4. Nova Southeastern University 417.5
5. Lynn University Swimming 168
6. Rollins College 141
7. Saint Leo University 66
8. Florida Institute of Technology 50
9. Lenoir Rhyne University 39
10. Bellarmine University 10
Men’s Meet
Tampa leads on the men’s side, powered by relays, where the Spartans have broken three school records already. On Saturday, the 200 medley relay team of Karl Burdis, Philip Nordenberg, Runar Borgen and Jeremy Parker went 1:29.23 to win easily and set a new Tampa school record. That set the tone for Sunday, where the Spartans swept both relays and broke school records in both – the 200 free relay of Khalid Aldaboos, Martin Hammer, Borgen and Parker went 1:20.77 and the 400 medley relay of Burdis, Nordenberg, Borgen and Hammer went 3:16.20.
Florida Southern sits second on the men’s side, winning three events. Julian Tolosa followed up his teammate Crenshaw’s great performance in the women’s 1000 free by winning the men’s race with a time of 9:14.15. France Lupoli was the runner-up to give FSC a 1-2 sweep early on.
The Moccasins also won the 200 IM Saturday with Luis Rojas‘ 1:49.44. Sunday Jesus Marin won the 200 free in a meet record 1:38.50.
St. Leo University has the only double individual winner on the men’s side so far – Mattheus Assis was the fastest man in the pool Saturday, going 20.30 to win the 50, and he doubled up in the 100 fly Sunday with a 48.32 win and a meet record. Also under the meet record in that race was Florida Southern’s Allan Gutierrez, who went 48.57 and broke an FSC school record.
The home team picked up a win Saturday as well when Oscar Aldabe went 3:56.77 to break a meet record in the 400 IM for Nova Southeastern.
Current Team Scores
1. The University of Tampa 862.5
2. Florida Southern College 700.5
3. Nova Southeastern University 537
4. Florida Institute of Technology 283
5. Saint Leo University 246
6. Rollins College 100
7. Lenoir Rhyne University 52
8. Bellarmine University 15