The Sunshine State Conference Swimming Championships kicked off Thursday as they should, in grand fashion. The day was packed with action and excitement as seven SSC records fell, as well as, nine meet records.
The dust settled on the first day as Nova Southeastern University leads the standings in both men's and women's team standings. Below is a brief overview of the day's action.
Team Standings Points
Women
1 Nova Southeastern 191.50
2 Tampa 159.50
3 Florida Southern 156
4 Saint Leo 87
5 Lynn 74
6 Florida Tech 44
7 Rollins 39
Men
1 Nova Southeastern 175
2 Florida Southern 161
3 Tampa 149
4 Saint Leo 125
5 Florida Tech 79
6 Rollins 8
Day One Preliminaries, Records broken:
Day one action began with Rebecca Matthews of Lynn setting a new SSC record in the 200 IM with a time of 2:01.79 dethroning Alexandra Hipoito of Tampa 2013 mark of (2:03.68). Also, Matthews time makes her as a Women's A qualifier for the NCAA Finals in May. Nova Southeastern's Bryndis Hansen shattered another SSC record as she set the record for the 50 Freestyle. She recorded a time of (22.79) she replaced Marry O'Sullivan of Florida Southern (22.99) was the owner of the record four years running.
Day one Finals, Records broken:
The finals started off with Brittany Bayes of Tampa setting an SSC Championship record for the 1000 Freestyle. Bayes put up a time of 10:04.9, which also earns her a spot in the NCAA Finals as a B qualifier. Once again, Rebecca Matthews of Lynn set a new SSC record in the 200 IM with a time of 2:00.39 besting her time set earlier on the day. That time also qualifies her as a Women's A qualifier for the NCAA Finals. Bryndis Hansen shattered her time she set earlier in the day in the Women's 50 Freestyle her new record is (22.68). Daniel Bis of Saint Leo relieved Chris O'Linger of his SSC record in the Men's 1000 Freestyle by posting a time of (9:01.09). Another Lion set a record on the day was Pawal Trenda, who set a meet record in the Men's 200 IM with a time of (1:47.77) he replaces Jeb Halfacre of Florida Southern. The women of Nova Southeastern set an SSC record in the 200 medley registering a time of (1:42.43). That record was previously held by Florida Southern (1:43.39) who set the record in 2011.
Nova Southeastern
The Nova Southeastern University swimming and diving teams completed day one of the 2015 Sunshine State Conference Championship, taking home one first place, two second place and one third place individual finish in the A-final events. The men and women both sit in first place, tallying 175 points on the men's side and 191.5 points on the women's side.
The highlight of the night came from Bryndis Hansen (So., Akureyri, Iceland), breaking her own record that she set Thursday morning in that women's 50-yard freestyle, swimming a NCAA A-Standard time of 22.68.
In the first event of Thursday night's finals, the women's 1000-yard freestyle, Alexis Diaz (Fr., Summerfield, Fla.) swam a NCAA B-Standard time of 10:21.80, good enough for fifth place. Diaz was followed by Blake Woodrow (Fr., Fort Myers, Fla.) who swam a NCAA B-Standard time of 9:13.74 in the men's 1000-yard freestyle, claiming second place.
The next event of the night, the women's 200-yard individual medley, featured a second-place finish from Courtney DeVeny (Fr., Estero, Fla.) and a third-place finish from Malin Westman (Fr., Harryda, Sweden). DeVeny's time of 2:01:40 was a NCAA A-Standard time, while Westman's time of 2:04.53 was a NCAA B-Standard time. In the men's 200-yard individual medley, Marco Aldabe (So., Alicante, Spain) swam a NCAA B-Standard time of 1:48.72, good enough for a second-place finish.
After Hansen swam her record-breaking time in the women's 50-yard freestyle, Thiago Sickert (So., Vila Velha, Brazil) swam a NCAA B-Standard time of 20.12 in the men's 50-yard freestyle.
The night concluded with the men's and women's 200-yard medley relay, two events dominated by NSU. On the women's side, DeVeny, Westman, Emma Lawrenz (Sr., Minnetonka, Minn.) and Jordan Shows (Fr., Alta Loma, Calif.) swam a SSC record time of 1:42.43. The men's 200-yard medley relay team, consisting of Aldabe, Anton Lobanov (Fr., Novosibirisk, Russia), Sickert and Michael Ragan (So., Dacula, Ga.) swam a SSC meet record time of 1:28.55. Both the women's and men's times were fast enough to clear the NCAA B-Standard.
The Sharks will be back in action at 10 a.m. Friday morning, competing in the preliminary round of day two.
Saint Leo
After Day 1 of the Sunshine State Conference Swimming Championships in Orlando, Saint Leo University has to be pleased as they had three individual first place finishes from their men's swimming team including two school records and two SSC records being broken.
In the men's 1000 Free, freshman Daniel Bis led all swimmers with a time of 9:01.09 shattering his own school record by a full 17.51 seconds. The Kalisz, Poland native's time was also good enough to break the SSC overall record previously set in March of 2011 by Tampa's Chris O'Linger by a full 5.17 seconds. Also competing in the 1000 Free was freshman Jan Urbaniak who placed third in the event with a time of 9:21.79.
Acing both the prelim and the championship race was junior Pawel Trenda in the 200 IM with a winning time of 1:47.77. Trenda breaks the Saint Leo record for the 200 IM previously held by himself set in March of 2013 and it also broke the SSC Championship record by two tenths of a second.
The 50 Free saw a familiar first place finisher as junior Matheus Assis stood atop the podium once again for the second year in a row. The Joao Pessoa, Brazil native was one-tenth of a second off his record time with a time of 20.05. Though not a broken record, it was good enough for fastest time swam in the SSC in this event this season.
Saint Leo women's swimming wasn't without their own record breaker. Although only good enough for fifth in a fast SSC conference, freshman Natalia Garriock's 23.43 in the 50 Free breaks a Saint Leo school record that she herself had set earlier this year. The time is good enough for an NCAA B cut.
Also earning an NCAA B cut was sophomore Nicole Weber for her effort in the women's 200 IM. The Konz, Germany native took fourth in the event with a time of 2:05.81.
"Pretty exciting day overall, as it's always fun to swim fast," expressed head coach Paul Mangen. "We had great races tonight, and our job is to carry that momentum into the next session and we will make sure we do that one way or the other."
