The No. 21 West Florida women’s swimming and diving team ranks second of five teams after the third day of the New South Intercollegiate Swimming Conference Championships on Friday at the Delta State Aquatic Center. The Argonauts (653) trail only No. 8 Delta State (699) heading into the meet’s final day on Saturday.
UWF claimed four individual conference championships on Friday, adding to the three the team won on Thursday. Peggy de Villiers (Somerset West, South Africa/Drury), Anna-Marie Macht (Markkleeberg, Germany/Darton State) and Josie McKee (Canton, Ohio/Malone) all won their second individual conference title on Friday, and Savannah Antonetz (Lake Charles, La./Barbe HS) claimed her first.
“We recovered from a couple setbacks in the morning and came out firing tonight, all guns blazing,” said UWF head coach Andrew Hancock. “The thing I liked the most about our girls tonight is our team spirit. We are also learning over the course of the meet. We identified some adjustments we wanted to make after the prelims, and we made them in the finals and the results speak for themselves. We had four new conference champions tonight, and hopefully that will continue to grow on the last day of the meet.”
The biggest individual highlight of the day was de Villiers’ win in the 100 Fly. Not only was her time of 54.84 a new NSISC record, DSU Aquatic Center record and school record, but it was the first NCAA A-cut qualifying time in UWF history. With the time, de Villiers automatically qualifies for the NCAA Division II Championships. Antonetz also placed fifth in the event with a time of 57.04, marking her first NCAA B-cut time in the 100 Fly.
Macht claimed her second conference championship in the 100 Breast with a time of 1:04.06, a new school record. Paulina Szydlo (Wroclaw, Poland/Gimbasket HS) was right behind her in third place with a time of 1:05.06, marking her first NCAA B-cut time in the event. Jennifer Starck (Hunstville, Ala./Huntsville HS) also placed eighth with a time of 1:08.55.
Antonetz’s conference championship came in the 100 Back where she swam a school record and NCAA B-cut time of 57.32 to take the win.
“It’s very exciting to have a win for the team,” said Antonetz. “We’ve been practicing and working hard every day. At the moment it’s tough, but you have to stick with it. It’s definitely worth it.”
Cheryl Corvo also placed fourth in the 100 Back with a time of 58.43, and Paige Edens was just behind in seventh place at 1:00.42.
McKee’s win came in the 1 Meter diving event, earning her a sweep of the two diving events at the meet. Her score of 462.45 is a new NSISC record, DSU Aquatic Center record and school record. Meghan Zets placed second in the event with a score of 426.10, earning her second top-two finish of the meet.
“It feels good to have some good finishes here at the conference meet,” said Zets. “We were nervous when we first got here because we had a bunch of new dives, but we went out there and dove our best. Hard work pays off.”
Although they weren’t wins, UWF also had strong finishes in the 400 IM, 200 Free and 400 Medley Relay. Macht placed second in the 400 IM with a time of 4:26.06, and she was followed by Phoebe Briant (Gainesville, Fla./Gainesville HS) in sixth and Allison Lehr (Valrico, Fla./Bloomingdale HS) in seventh. Carla Robles (Miami, Fla./Coral Reef HS) was a sixth place finisher in the 200 Free, and the team of Antonetz, Szydlo, de Villiers and Macht swam a school record time of 3:51.09 and placed third in the 400 Medley Relay.
Friday also included recognition for the NSISC Scholar Athletes, honoring all student-athletes at the event with a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher. A total of 10 Argonauts earned the honor, including Corvo, Edens, Kelsey Fry (Plant City, Fla./Plant City HS), Nicole Harder (Lutz, Fla./Sunlake HS), Karisa Kostecki (Lithia, Fla./Newsome HS), Lehr, Jamie McDonald (Panama City, Fla./Arnold HS), McKee, Emily Mitchell (Allen Park, Mich./Darton State) and Starck.
The final day of the meet will start with prelims on Saturday at 10 a.m. CT. The prelims will include the 200 Back, 100 Free, 200 Breast, 200 Fly and 1650 Free.
