Swimcloud

UMBC Men, Florida Gulf Coast Women Grab CCSA Leads

Florida Gulf Coast University and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County are currently leading after the first day of  the 2015 Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association (CCSA) Swimming and Diving Championship on Wednesday at the University of Georgia’s Gabrielson Natatorium. 
 
UMBC Men’s 800-yard medley relay team of Gregor Spoerlein, Nikola Trajkovic, Robert Breen and Jonas Gutzat  took the first win of these championships with a time of 6:30.65. Incarnate Word (Mehdi El Hazzas, Connor Hennessy, Aaron Moran and Oleksii Morgun) finished in second-place with a time of 6:33.22, and Gardner-Webb (Nathan Lile, Cameron Pou, Hal McKay and Nicholas Dyer) was third, posting a time of 6:40.11.
 
In the Women’s 200-yard medley relay, the Florida Gulf Coast team of Kira Toussaint, Katie Armitage, Emma Svensson and Becky Derogatis broke the meet and Conference record touching in 1:37.17.  Liberty (Kendall Hough, Prudence Rooker, Kendall Hart and Meghan Babcock) placed second with a time of 1:39.73, while Gardner-Webb (Lili Toth, Charity Byrum, Mary O’Doherty and Kelsey Williams) took third-place with a time of 1:40.96.
 
Gardner-Webb Men’s 200-yard relay team of Connor Bos, Brandon Searle, Tyler Gomez and Nathan Lile took the title with a time of 1:28.81. UMBC (Lauri Kaei, Leo Endres, Andrew Schrantz and Trevor Doll) placed second with a time of 1:29.39, while Howard University (Benjamin Skelding, Dexter Brown, Jared Miller and Popovich Trent) took third-place with a time of 1:35.22.
 
The final event of the evening, Women’s 800-yard freestyle relay, was taken by FGCU (Kira Toussaint, Katie Armitage, Lanie Cabrera and Nina Schiffer) touching in 7:16.90. Liberty (Cori Gary, Rachel Wasko, Chelsea Pond and Emily Duffy) placed second with a time of 7:21.10, with Georgia Southern University (Kylee Parsons, Madison Lichtefeld, Kaylyn Thomas and Amber Cortazzo) finished third with a time of 7:26.65.
 
The first diving final of the evening saw the University of Incarnate Word take the Women’s 3-meter title with Kali Lents scoring 304.60 points. Cayla Collins of FGCU took second with 277.05 points and University of Incarnate Word’s Kim Foster took third with 255.65 points.
 
Following the first night of competition, UMBC tops the men’s standings with 74 points. Gardner-Webb sits in second with 72 points and New Jersey Institute of Technology is third with 60 points. Virginia Military Institute is fourth with 56 points, while Incarnate Word is in fifth with 34 points. Howard University rounds out the top six with 32 points.
 
In the women’s standings, FGCU leads with 205 points, followed by Incarnate Word (187) and GSU (146) rounding out the top three. Liberty sits in fourth with 112 points, while Gardner-Webb (106), VMI (95) and UNC-Asheville (92) are currently fifth, sixth and seventh respectively. The University of North Florida (88), North Carolina A&T (74) and Howard University (34) round out the field.
 
The second day of the CCSA Championship will begin Thursday, Feb. 19 at 10:00am, starting with the 500-yard freestyle preliminaries.  The event finals for day two will start at 6:00pm.

 

Liberty

Liberty posted a pair of second-place finishes on day one of the 2015 CCSA Swimming & Diving Championships, Wednesday at Gabrielsen Natatorium. The defending champion Lady Flames stand fourth in the 11-team field following three completed events.
        
Last year’s runner-up, Florida Gulf Coast, leads the meet standings with 205 points, followed by Incarnate Word (187) and Georgia Southern (146) in second and third, respectively. Liberty is in fourth with 112 points, six ahead of fifth-place Gardner-Webb. FGCU, Incarnate Word and Georgia Southern all scored a substantial amount of points in the women’s three-meter diving.
        
Both of Liberty’s relay times on Wednesday place second on the program’s all-time performance list.
        
The Lady Flames opened the finals by placing second to Florida Gulf Coast in the 200 medley relay. Liberty’s relay, consisting of junior Kendall Hough (24.97), freshmen Prudence Rooker (28.16) and Kendall Hart (24.04) and senior Meghan Babcock (22.56), swam a season-best 1:39.73. Hough broke her own program record in the 50 backstroke, leading off in 24.97. FGCU’s winning time of 1:37.17 set a new conference and meet record, while meeting an NCAA A cut.
        
Liberty closed out the evening with a season-best 7:21.10 to earn second to FGCU (7:16.90) in the 800 free relay. Senior Cori Gary led off in 1:51.35, followed by freshmen Rachel Wasko (1:50.67) and Chelsea Pond (1:50.60) and senior Emily Doff (1:48.48).
        
Freshman Madi Long scored 185.90 points in the women’s three-meter springboard diving prelims. Her score was the highest by a Lady Flame at a CCSA Championship meet.
        
Liberty continues its participation at the 2015 CCSA Swimming & Diving Championships tomorrow, when individual events begin. Thursday’s morning session starts at 10 a.m., with preliminary heats of the 500 freestyle. Day two also features the 200 individual medley, 50 free, one-meter diving and 200 free relay.

 

VMI Men

The VMI Keydet men's swimming and diving team sits fourth after day one of the Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association (CCSA) Championships, contested Wednesday night in Athens, Ga. 

Day one for the Keydets saw both the 800 free relay and 200 medley teams finish fifth in their respective races. Jeff Whiteman, John Armellino, John Walker and John Kelly posted a 7:25.17 time in the longer distance, while Ben Fields, Mitch Fornwald, Christian Shaner and Christian Purdy teamed up for a 1:39.24 effort in the shorter race. 
 
 
VMI Women

The VMI Keydet women's swimming and diving team set a new school record in the 800 free relay, while senior Heather Magill finished seventh in the 3-meter diving competition to highlight action on day one of Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association (CCSA) Championships, held Wednesday night in Athens, Ga. 

The record in the 800 free relay was set by Mackenzie Perkins, Ally Van Valen, McKenzie Raber and Elise Reed, who finished ninth overall in a time of 8:25.04, some two seconds under the old school record. 
Magill, meanwhile, placed seventh in the 3-meter diving event. Her finals score was 226.80.
Thanks to the two strong results, the Keydets sit seventh with 95 points. They are one behind Campbell and three ahead of UNC Asheville, as well as being seven points in front of ninth-place North Florida. Florida Gulf Coast leads the way with 205 total points after day one. 
The CCSA Championships resume Thursday, as action gets underway at 10 a.m. in Athens, Ga. 

Comments