Nova Southeastern withstood a late charge from Florida Southern on the men's side to claim the 2017 Sunshine State Conference Championship while the Sharks women also took care of business to win the SSC Title.
This is the third SSC crown for each squad. The Sharks men last won the title in 2012 while the women earned top honors last in 2015.
Nova Southeastern's celebration was not limited to team accolades as Franco Lupoli and Courtney DeVeny were each awarded SSC Swimmer of the Meet honors. Lupoli becomes the fourth different Shark to win swimmer of the meet and DeVeny the second different women's swimmer of NSU.
Florida Southern placed second on the men's side followed by Tampa, Florida Tech, Saint Leo and Rollins. Tampa finished second in the women's competition with Florida Southern, Saint Leo, Lynn, Florida Tech and Rollins rounding out the field.
Day 4 Finals:
Top Performances
One meet record was broken, coming late in the women's 400 freestyle relay, with three top-times of the season and one NCAA 'A' cut time established as well.
Lupoli locked down SSC Swimmer of the Meet recognition following his first place finish in the 1650 frestyle. It marked his fourth individual gold medal of the championship.
DeVeney needed to outlast teammate Emma Wahlstrom for the top individual honors. The teammates were neck-and-neck heading into their final event, the 200 backstroke, and DeVeney tapped the wall in 1:57.94 ahead of Wahlstrom's 1:59.15 to become the Sharks' first female SSC Swimmer of the Meet since 2013.
Nova Southeastern's women's 400 freestyle relay team broke its own record with a time of 3:24.43. The Sharks set five relay records and seven of the nine meet records broken overall.
Other highlights included Marco Palacios' NCAA 'A' cut time of 1:44.78 in the 200 back. Palacios' time was one-one hundredth of a second off the SSC Meet record but did hold up as the top time in the league this season. Additionally, NSU's Madison Yelle logged the top 1650 time (16:56.06) and Malin Westman collected the top 200 breast time (2:14.24).
