The Florida State swimming and diving teams picked up three wins as the two-day quad meet with Florida Southern, Florida Gulf Coast and West Florida came to a close on Saturday at the Morcom Aquatics Center.
The 22nd-ranked men’s team won six of the eight races and 14 of 17 overall in order to defeat Florida Southern, 205-110 improving to 3-2 on the year. The women defeated West Florida (260-93) and Florida Southern (298-49), but fell to Florida Gulf Coast (220.5-132.5), who is a team that received votes in the recent CSCAA poll. The Seminoles are now 3-4 this season.
“Today was a better day,” FSU head coach Frank Bradley said. “I thought we took the challenge of being better today well, especially our freshman. It was great to continue to see them progress today.”
Junior Jason Coombs continued his strong outing from Friday as his Saturday session was highlighted with a win in the 100 breast with a time of 54.60, which ranks him 10th in the nation.
“Jason had a solid day,” Bradley said. “He had a good meet. He was consistent with his races.”
On the boards, freshman Cassidy Gebhart led the way, winning 1-meter with a score of 267.10, while sophomore Blair Mulka finished in second, tallying 263.60.
“Our divers did a great job,” Bradley said. “John (Proctor) is doing a great job with them. They do a great job of staying in the moment and competing hard.”
Individually for the men, the Seminoles started the session by finishing first and second in the 100 IM, which is an unfamiliar event in the NCAA dual meet lineup. Coombs took first after making his move during breaststroke, touching at 50.50. Junior Stefan Stojmenovic was second with a time of 51.22.
Sophomore Calvin Bryant pulled away in the last 250 yards of the 1000 free, touching with a 9:23.81, which was season best showing.
Jason McCormick and Kanoa Kaleoaloha broke the 45-second barrier in the 100 free, as McCormick overcame Kaleoaloha for a one-two punch, touching at 44.42 and 44.54 respectively.
“Kanoa really had a fantastic 100 today,” Bradley said. “He stepped up big and a swim like that is going to help us down the road both individually and on relays. We haven’t had two guys thrown down those times in that race in a dual in a very long time, if ever. That’s very encouraging.”
The Seminoles were victorious in the 400 medley relay as sophomore Connor Kalisz, Coombs, senior Cole Hensley and McCormick posted the top time (3:17.44).
Junior Lydia Ware stood out on Saturday for the women’s team, finishing second in the 100 IM with a time of 57.59 before senior Sami Pochowski placed second in the 100 breast with a time of 1:02.56.
“Lydia and Sami went after it today,” Bradley said. “I thought they stepped up along with some of our freshman.”
Among those meeting the challenge in the freshman class were Summer Finke, who posted a time of 10:10.97 in the 1000 free placing second, along with Leila Johnston who was the runner up in the 100 fly with a time of 56.20. Both swims were season best times.
“We’re done with this one and now it’s time to shift our focus to our mid-season invite,” Bradley said. “This meet is going to tell us what we have and hopefully it will set us up to have a great end of the year.”
Florida State will travel to Athens, Ga. for the Georgia Invite, which runs Dec. 4-6. It is a prelim-final formatted me that will run all day.
Florida Gulf Coast
Entering the second day of competition with a comfortable lead over both No. 31 Florida State and Florida Southern, the No. 25 FGCU swimming and diving team cruised to a pair of dual-meet victories at the Morcom Aquatics Center in Tallahassee, Fla., this weekend. The Green and Blue defeated FSU 220.5-132.5 and took down the Mocs 301-40.
"Today was another great day in which we performed extremely well in the swimming events," said FGCU head coach Neal Studd. "I'm so proud of this team and the way they fight, the way they support each other and the way they handle themselves. They are a class act and I could not be happier."
The Eagles are now 6-0 in dual meets this season with four of those wins coming over nationally-ranked opponents in No. 33 Notre Dame (158-104), No. 38 Boise State (159-140), No. 47 Utah (165-135) and Saturday's win against FSU.
This weekend's victory against the Seminoles marks FGCU's second-consecutive win over the Garnet and Gold. A season ago, the Green and Blue defeated FSU for the first time in program history by a margin of 186-148 at the FGCU Aquatics Center.
FGCU won seven of nine events on Saturday and turned in four season-best performances. Overall in the two-day event, the Green and Blue finished first in 15 of 19 events while recording 10 season-best efforts.
Highlighting Saturday's events, Lani Cabrera (Bridgetown, Barbados/St. Ursala's Secondary School) improved her record in the 1000-yard freestyle to 4-0 this season with a personal-best time of 10:04.08, more than seven seconds faster than her previous best against Notre Dame this season. Cabrera not only defeated the field by more than six seconds, but also turned in the second-best time in program history, less than five seconds shy of Leah Daniel's school record at the 2009 CCSA Championships. Linda Shaw (Leeds, United Kingdom/Roundhay HS) finished third in the event after swimming a season-best time of 10:14.39.
Elise Haan (Naples, Fla./Gulf Coast HS) improved her individual record to 7-0 to start her collegiate career with a win in the 100-yard backstroke after swimming a time of 54.73 seconds, marking the third consecutive week the freshman swam a time good enough to achieve a NCAA 'B' cut in the event.
Barbara Caraballo (Ponce, Puerto Rico/Newsome HS/Indian River) continued to emerge as FGCU's top IM swimmer as she won the 100-yard event in a season-best time of 57.47 seconds. Teammate Katie Latham (Deal, Kent, United Kingdom/Sir Roger Manwood's School) finished third in the event after touching the pads in 57.80 seconds. Later, Latham won her seventh individual event of the season and notched her third-consecutive win in the 100-yard freestyle after swimming a race of 50.62 seconds.
Katie Armitage (Bushey, United Kingdom/Queens School Bushey) won her fifth-consecutive 100-yard breaststroke event to start the season after clocking a time of 1:02.25. Teammate Evita Leter (Paramaribo, Suriname/Doral Academy) finished third in the event as she swam race of 1:03.72.
The Eagles swept Saturday's relay events with a pair of season-best efforts and first-place finishes to begin and end the day's swimming events. The 400-yard medley team of Haan, Armitage, Yee Ching Wong (Hong Kong, China/Diocesan Girls' School) and Hannah Burdge (Stuart, Fla./Martin County HS) got the day started with a win in the event in a time of 3:43.96. Lastly, the 200-yard freestyle team of Latham, Haan, Caraballo and Armitage capped off the meet as they swam a race of 1:33.33, finishing just ahead of a pair of FSU quartets.
Additionally, Wong tied for second in the 100-yard butterfly with FSU's Leila Johnston after touching the pads in 56.20 seconds. West Florida's Peggy de Villiers won the event. However, the Green and Blue weren't in competition with the Argonauts this weekend.
After their trip to Tallahassee, the Green and Blue will compete at the three-day Georgia Tech Invite beginning Thursday, Nov. 19 and wrapping up Saturday, Nov. 21.
