TEAM SCORES & RANKINGS
Men
1. Florida (388)
2. Nova Southeastern (273)
3. Keiser (197)
Women
1. Florida (385)
2. Florida Gulf Coast (343)
3. Miami (FL) [190]
4. Nova Southeastern (178)
5. Keiser (13)
Florida
After one day of competition, Florida looks to be on its way to earning its seventh-straight All-Florida Invitational title.
The Gators hold a commanding lead for both the men's and women's team title races, with the men's team totaling 388 points and the women's team collecting 385 points so far.
Freshman Kay Sargent took home her first two collegiate individual titles and 40 points for the Gator women, winning both the 500 free (4:56.99) and 200 IM (2:04.49). Another freshman, Sherridon Dressel, was tops in the 50 free (23.62). In the diving well, Teya Syskakis rounded out the scoring for the women with the 1-meter (259.43) title, while redshirt freshman Miranda Goss took the 3-meter.
Mark Szaranek collected the lone individual swimming event win for the Florida men, the 200 IM (1:49.94), and Samuel Smith won both the 1-meter (338.03) and 3-meter (350.18) diving titles as well. Smith achieved 2017 NCAA Championships qualifying standards on both dives in earning over 300 points on the 1-meter and over 320 points on the 3-meter.
For relays, Florida swept the 400 medley relay titles. The women's A-team of Emma Ball, Dani Keymont, Alyssa Yambor-Maul and Sherridon Dressel posted a 3:51.25 finals time, while the men's B-team of Bayley Main, Marco Guarente, Ben Kennedy and Ben Lawless put up a 3:24.24.
UF also gathered a number of points from other top three finishes. The women totaled two second-place and five third-place rankings, and the men had five second-place and six third-place finishes.
Florida Gulf Coast
Months of preparation leading up to the season-opening All Florida Invitational paid off for the FGCU swimming & diving team as the Eagles stand in second place behind in-state rival Florida after the first day of competition at the NSU Aquatic Center Friday evening.
Highlighted by a win over the Gators in the opening 200 free relay, FGCU recorded 343 points on the day and trails Florida by 42 points while holding a substantial lead over Miami (190), Nova Southeastern (178) and Keiser (13).
"Tonight was about toughness and rising to the challenge when not everything is going your way," said FGCU head coach Dave Rollins. "We had many athletes racing multiple events in a shortened session that was rushed even more by weather, but our team knew how to make the most of their opportunity. Anytime you can win a race against a national power like Florida is great and it allowed the girls to see what they are capable of when they take a risk. We're happy with how they challenged themselves and are looking to take what we learned tonight and put it into practice."
Following Friday's preliminary events that saw eight Eagles advance to the evening's 'A' finals and a pair of quartets in both the 200 free relay and 400 medley relay, FGCU wasted no time in getting on the scoreboard as the quartet of Katie Latham (Deal, Kent, United Kingdom/Sir Roger Manwood's School), Gracie Redding (Orlando, Fla./FSU/The First Academy), Fanny Teijonsalo (Espoo, Finland/Makelanrinteen Lukio) and Barbara Caraballo (Ponce, Puerto Rico/Indian River/Newsome HS) out touched the Gators by nearly a second in the event as they clocked a time of 1:34.44.
Of the three individual swimming events that followed, FGCU turned in top-three finishes in two of them as Caraballo placed second in the 200 IM after touching the pads in 2:04.70 - nearly two and a half seconds faster than her prelim time - and Latham touched third in the 50 free with a time of 24.09 seconds.
A trio of Eagles finished in the top-eight in both the 500 free and 200 IM. Linda Shaw (Leeds, United Kingdom/Roundhay HS), Elizabeth Zeiger (Cumberland, R.I./Crimson Aquatics) and Yee Ching Wong (Hong Kong, China/Diocesan Girls' School) finished fourth, sixth and eighth, respectively, and earned a combined 39 points in the 500 free, while Christina Kaas Elmgreen (Charlottenlund, Denmark/Ordrup Gymnasium) and Zeiger joined Caraballo with fifth and sixth place finished in the 200 IM to tally 44 points. Additionally, Redding finished just behind Latham with a fourth-place finish in the 50 free while Teijonsalo won the event in the 'B' final.
Capping off the swimming events, the Green and Blue totaled 66 points in the 400 medley relay as both Eagle quartets made the podium in the event. Sandra Wilk (Lexington, Ky./Paul Lawrence Dunbar HS), Elizabeth Zubero (Fort Lauderdale, Fla./Westminster Academy), Kaas Elmgreen and Redding touched second in 3:54.16, just 0.12 seconds ahead of Caraballo, Evita Leter (Paramaribo, Suriname/Doral Academy), Teijonsalo and Latham.
In Friday's diving events, Ashley Wright (Port St. Lucie, Fla./Indian River/Lincoln Park Academy) led the way with a runner-up finish in both the one-meter (254.85) and three-meter (247.80) dives, coming up just five points shy of Florida's Teya Syskakis in both events.
Miami (Fla.)
The University of Miami swimming team enjoyed a strong opening day at the All-Florida Invite Friday on the Nova Southeastern campus.
Competing without its diving contingent, the Hurricanes ended the first day in third place with 190 points.
The Hurricanes' 200 freestyle relay team opened the competition with a fourth-place finish. Sophomore Ianire Casarin, freshman Iliana Oikonomou, junior Julie Suarez and senior Angela Algee delivered an impressive time in their first ever event.
Junior Julie Suarez, who qualified for the night's "A" final of the 500 free after a strong showing in preliminaries, improved with a time of 5:03.30 to take seventh in the finals. Freshman Claire McGinnis (5:04.93) and senior Cameron Davis (5:05.50) were the top two finishers in the "B" final of the same event.
Senior Christina Leander earned Miami points with a seventh-place finish (2:07.91) in the "A" final of the 200 IM, while sophomore Roxanne Yu (2:10.66) and Algee (2:11.52) scored in the "B" final.
One of the day's most impressive performances belonged to Oikonomou, who was making her collegiate debut. Competing in the 50 freestyle, the freshman finished with the third-best time in preliminaries (24.03) and took second in the "A" final with a nearly exact time (24.04) in her second attempt.
Suarez (24.64) and Algee (24.55) also posted strong times in the event.
The Hurricanes closed their first day from the NSU Aquatic Complex with a time of 3:56.34 in the 400 medley relay. Leander, Algee, Oikonomou and senior Julia Schippert teamed up for a sixth-place finish in the event.
Nova Southeastern
With one day down, the Nova Southeastern University men's and women's swim teams began the 2016-17 season on a solid note while hosting the NSU Sharks All-Florida Invitational on Friday at the NSU Aquatic Complex. With a full day of competition completed, the Sharks men are in second with 273 points while the women's team is fourth with 178.
The University of Florida leads both the men's and women's competition with the Gators' men leading the three-team field with 388 points, and their women lead a five-team field with 385.
Two Sharks posted first-place finishes in both the prelims and finals. After posting the top time through three heats of competition in the morning session, junior Franco Lupoli went on to win the A-final of the men's 500 freestyle in the evening. With a time of 4:32.43 he edged out Florida's Blake Manganiello by less than a tenth of a second to give NSU 20 points.
Thiago Sickert finished in the same fashion by winning the 50 free during the morning session and later won the A-final in the same event by three-tenths of a second over fellow teammate Till Barthel with a time of 20.96. In the men's 200-yard free relay, NSU's A-relay (Sickert, Barthel, Victor Tarin, Malique Elder) finished with a NCAA DII provisional qualifying time of 1:23.09 to take the championship final in over Florida.
On the women's side, Courtney DeVeny won the consolation final in the women's 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:10.37 shaving off more than a second from her morning prelim. DeVeny's teammate Malin Westman finished eighth overall in the event while competing in the A-final.
Other top performances for the Sharks women came from Sydney Panzarino who finished fifth in the women's 50-free A-final at 24.36. Emma Wahlstrom swam a time of 5:01.90 in the women's 500-free A-final, which was also a NCAA DII provisional qualifying time.
