Florida Men Hold 1-Day Lead Over Colorado at ECC Championships; Buffs Women Rolling Again

Day 1 of the 2014 ECC National Swimming & Diving Championships is in the books, and the Buffaloes have jumped out to claim an early lead in the combined team scoring. The Florida Gators are in second, and certainly should not be counted out yet; they lead the men’s standings by 1 point over the Buffaloes. On the women’s side, Colorado scored 330 points to Florida’s 162.

Colorado’s depth in the distance events earned them 625 points tonight and 3 first place finishes, all of which were in meet record time. The women’s team was led by their only individual winner, Alaina Gossett, who lowered the ECC record in the 200 Backstroke to 2:08.64. Additionally, both of the Buffaloes relays – the 4×200 Freestyle and 4×100 Medley – set records, clocking in at 7:57.55 and 4:01.74, respectively.

The Florida men matched the Colorado women’s success with four first place performances tonight. Kristof Kertesz set the pace with wins in the 400 Individual Medley (4:09.14) and 200 Butterfly (1:56.07), while Florida swept both relays, touching the wall for the 4×200 Freestyle in 7:05.73 – a .01 second win over Colorado – and 3:29.76 in the 4×100 Medley Relay. The Gators did exactly what they needed to tonight in order to keep them in contention heading into the sprint-based events over the next two days.

Other winners on Day 1 include UGA’s Meghan Faulker in the 400 Individual Medley, who swam to a meet record 4:37.98 and Bobby Bittner of South Carolina, who made it to the wall first in the 200 Backstroke (1:51.32). Virginia Tech’s Kayla Iverson took the women’s 200 fly title in 2:12.26. A pair of meet records fell in the 200 Breaststroke as Melissa Andruzzi of Illinois and Andrew Smiddy of Penn. State swam 2:25.32 and 2:03.50 in their respective races. Andruzzi then came back to set another meet record in the following event. She capped her evening off with a 5:09.34 in the Women’s 500 Freestyle. The individual events of Day 1 were concluded with UVA’s Dirk Verheul claiming the Men’s 500 Freestyle in a convincing 4:42.48.

Full, live meet results available here.

The top 5 combined scores after Day 1 are as follows:

1.       Colorado         625 Points

2.       Florida             458 Points

3.       Northeastern 285 Points

4.       Connecticut    278 Points

5.       Virginia Tech   217 Points

The top 3 men scores after Day 1 are as follows:

1.       Florida 296 Points

2.       Colorado 295 points

3.       Northeastern 156 points

The top 3 women scores after Day 1 are as follows:

1.       Colorado 330 Points

2.       Florida 162 points

3.       Illinois 154 points

The above is a press release submitted by Patrick Chai of the ECC.