2015 CCSA Swimming Championships Mini-Guide: IWU Men Big Favorites

2015 CCSA Championships

• Wednesday, February 18- Saturday, February 21
• Athens, GA – Gabrielsen Natatorium
• Prelims/Finals Wednesday 5 PM (diving)/6 PM, Thursday-Saturday 10 AM/6 PM (Eastern Time Zone)
• Championship Central (Link to live results on this page once meet starts)

Gabrielsen Natatorium will play host to the 2015 Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association Conference Championships. The 2014 CCSA Championship Meet featured tight races between the winner and runner-up of both the men and women’s meet. Coach Jake Shellenberger’s Liberty Flames finished first in the women’s meet with a fourteen point victory over Florida Gulf Coast University. The 2014 men’s meet went to first year CCSA member, University of Incarnate Word.

Florida Gulf Coast University will be looking for revenge after Liberty University ended their quest to win a sixth straight CCSA Championship in 2014. These two schools have been battling it out since 2012. FGCU will have the advantage with three divers, and Liberty University will need to fight back from this if they want to defend as champions. During a home meet back in January FGCU beat Liberty by a score of 217-77. Liberty, though, is able to step-up big in relays during championship season, and that should provide for some exciting races.

Both teams will be battling to qualify relays for NCAA’s this year, and in general, this meet will try to avoid the relay DQ’s that were rampant at last year’s event. That includes two A-relay DQ’s from Florida Gulf Coast that likely cost them the meet – in the 800 free relay and 400 medley relay.

The men’s meet looks like it might be a race for second with University of Incarnate Word currently holding the CCSA best times in all relays and 13 individual events. At the Austin Grand Prix three UIW swimmers (Aaron Moran, Nathan Coppock, and David Moore) made A- Finals against fierce competition. UMBC will put up some strong competition, though, behind four time CCSA swimmer of the week Gregor Sporlein. Look for Sporlein to challenge in the sprint free races and put up some solid splits in UMBC’s relays.