What was expected to be a dogfight for the women’s Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association (CCSA) title has gotten a whole lot more interesting at the Allan Jones Natatorium in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Liberty swam a 1:28.21 to top Florida Gulf Coast’s 1:38.82 in the 200 medley relay to open the women’s meet. The big split from FGCU was a 26.68 on the breaststroke leg from senior Emilie Kaufman (that’s faster than Georgia’s Melanie Margalis split on Tuesday when they won the SEC title), and for Florida Gulf Coast it was a 24.26 leadoff leg from Dutch freshman Kira Toussaint.
That helped build a little confidence in Liberty, who are not the defending champions out of the two relatively new, but very well-built, division 1 teams. That confidence would only grow later in the night, when they time trialed a 1:37.80 to earn the first-ever NCAA qualifying relay in the four-year history of the Liberty program (presuming they get the individual qualifier to match the relay – a requirement under the new qualifying rules).
But that’s not why things got interesting. The 5-time defending champions from Florida Gulf Coast are a deep enough team individually to make up a few second-place relay points.
Where things got interesting is when Florida Gulf Coast had an early takeoff on their 800 free relay by senior Lindsey Meeder, which cost them at least 30 big points early on.
The win in that 800 free relay went to Davidson in a 7:16.58. That included a 1:47.49 leadoff from freshman Elise Lankiewicz that was the fastest split of any leg for the entire field.
Liberty was 2nd in that relay in 7:17.75, as both teams were well under Florida Gulf Coast’s old Meet Record of 7:21.0.
FGCU would have an early takeoff again as they time-trialed a 200 medley relay, trying to join Liberty under the NCAA qualifying standard.
Meanwhile, in the men’s meet, the newcomers made a big early statement. The men swam the 800 free relay first, with the win going to UMBC in 6:30.37. They were led off by Mohamed Hussein, their almost-All-American from last year, in 1:37.13; the relay ended with a spectacular 1:36.11 anchor from Gregor Spoerlein on the back side, as they broke the old conference championship record by 10 seconds in their first championship meet.
The second-place spot went to Incarnate Word in 6:34.10, including an identical 1:36.11 split of their own from Evandro Silva. UIW is in their first year as a Division I program, though they’re still not eligible for NCAA competition for a few seasons.
And then the defending champions, Davidson, swam a 6:34.58 for 3rd, with junior Dylan Ludwick anchoring them in 1:35.51. Showing just how much the level of competition in this conference has increased on the men’s side, Davidson was under their own Meet Record by 6 seconds as well, as did Incarnate Word.
It was another newcomer 1-2 in the men’s 200 medley relay, with Incarnate Word winning in 1:27.52 with a team of Daniel Torres, Thiago Parravicini, Andrii Nikishenko, and Alex Brouwer. That’s a team made up of three seniors and a junior.
UMBC took 2nd in 1:28.99, and the defending champions, and meet record holders, Gardner-Webb were 3rd in 1:29.49. Incarnate Word and UMBC were both under the old championship record.
Expect the FGCU women to claw their way back into the meet as early as the 500 free on Thursday, bu with a tight meet anticipated, they need a lot of breaks to go their way the rest of this week.
Team Scores Through Day 1
Women
Women – Team Rankings – Through Event 101
1. Liberty University 74
2. Georgia Southern University 62
3. Univ OF The Incarnate Word 58
4. Campbell University 54
5. University of North Florida 50
T-6. Davidson College 40
T-6. Howard University 40
8. Florida Gulf Coast University 34
9. Gardner-Webb University 32
10. Radford University 24
11. Univ North Carolina Asheville 22
12. Virginia Military Institute 14
13. North Carolina A&T State Unive 12
Men
T-1. Univ OF The Incarnate Word 74
T-1. Umbc Swimming & Diving 74
T-3. Davidson College 62
T-3. Gardner-Webb University 62
T-5. NJIT 54
T-5. VMI 54
7. Howard 48
