Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN) – Men and Women
- Dates: Wednesday, February 19–Saturday, February 22
- Location: Allan Jones Aquatic Center, Knoxville, TN
- Defending Champions: Liberty women (1x), SMU men (1x)
- Live Results
- Live Video: ESPN+
- Championship Central: women’s site ׀ men’s site
- Fan Guide
- Teams: Bellarmine, Florida Atlantic (men), Florida Gulf Coast (women), Gardner-Webb, Liberty (women), North Florida (women), Old Dominion (men), Queens, UNC Asheville (women)
- Psych Sheets
- Results: Day 1 | Day 2
- Recaps: Day 1
The Florida Atlantic diving strategy is paying off, helping the Owls keep pace with the favorite Queens Royals in the men’s meet, while Liberty has pulled ahead in a three-team battle on the women’s side.
Men’s Recap
Standings After Day 2:
- Queens – 556
- FAU – 539
- Old Dominion – 221
- Gardner-Webb – 214
- Bellarmine – 146
The Queens men won four of the five swimming events on Thursday, but a 88-39 advantage in men’s 1-meter kept the Owls within striking distance.
FAU took the top four spots on 1-meter and earned a bonus 20 points from swimmers Payne Smith and Ryan Stahl legally completing their lineups to offset the addition of Queens divers at this meet for the first time. The teams are the only two with divers entered this week.
With only platform left to go, and fewer divers entered, though, that diving advantage will be mitigated in the last two days of the meet by the Queens swimmers, who continued their hot streak on Day 2.
They opened the meet with a 1:17.55 in the 200 free relay, which breaks the ASUN Record also set by Queens at 1:17.57 in 2023 (a carried-forward CCSA record).
The team of Matej Dusa (19.17), Nien Levy (19.14), Conner Wang (19.56), and Daniel Meszaros (19.68) combined to win the race by a second-and-a-half over FAU. FAU’s time of 1:19.05 is a new school record.
Wang, a senior, came back in the very next race to win the 100 fly in 46.17, which just missed the conference record set by SMU‘s Danny Kovac last season (46.17).
In the process, he upended FAU’s Peyton Ming, who was the top returning swimmer in this event from last year’s ASUN Championship. Ming swam 46.89 for second place, just-missing another school record for FAU; while Wednesday’s 50 free champion Matej Dusa was 3rd in the 100 fly in 47.34.
The Queens men made up half of the A-final in that race.
While Queens again had the depth advantage, FAU’s Nick Shaffer picked up his team’s only swimming win of the day, leading the field in the 400 IM in 3:51.55. He was 5th at last year’s meet, which made him the top returning swimmer in the field.
Shaffer’s best time remains a 3:48.79 done in 2023 during his sophomore season.
Shaffer is the son of Bill Shaffer, who coached 6 Florida High School State Championship teams. Bill Shaffer died in December.
The highlight event of the day was the anticipated battle in the men’s 200 freestyle between Queens‘ Daniel Meszaros and FAU’s Daniel Laureyssens, among other big names in the field. In the end it was Meszaros who won in 1:34.73 after a big second 50 put him a second ahead of Laureyssens at the turn.
Splits
| Daniel Meszaros – 1st |
Daniel Laureyssens – 2nd
|
|
| Queens | FAU | |
| 50y | 21.77 | 22.07 |
| 100y | 23.70 | 24.34 |
| 150y | 24.58 | 24.87 |
| 200y | 24.68 | 24.61 |
| Total Time | 1:34.73 | 1:35.89 |
Laureyssens won the 500 free on Wednesday, which shows up as he stopped giving up ground to the more sprint-oriented Meszaros late in the race.
Queens wrapped the swimming portion of the day with another win, this time in the 400 medley relay with the team of Andreas Maerz, Noah Beladi, Conner Wang, and Matej Dusa. That included a 46.00 fly split from Wang and a 52.29 free split from Dusa.
That team is all seniors, meaning they’ll be looking for reinforcements next season, while the three relays behind them combined has only two seniors. That included just one for runners-up FAU, who touched 2nd in 3:11.65 to set a new school record.
While Queens is still in control of the meet, FAU’s upset bid will get a boost on Friday thanks to some potential spoilers from Old Dominion and Gardner Webb, who hold the top seeds in the 100 back and 100 breaststroke. FAU will need their backstrokers and 200 butterfliers to climb the ranks in a hurry, though, if they want to keep pace.
Women’s Recap
Standings After Day 2:
- Liberty – 499
- FGCU – 409
- Queens – 329
- UNC – Asheville – 271
- North Florida – 141
- Bellarmine – 92
- Gardner-Webb – 91
The Liberty women extended their lead on Day 2 of the women’s ASUN Championships, with diving again playing a big role in the standings.
Shannon Icard led a 1-2-4 finish for Liberty on women’s 3-meter, but six FGCU entries actually gave the Eagles a 59-52 diving advantage.
Equally significant for FGCU is that their 59 diving points were 59 points more than the diverless Queens women scored in the event.
With a similar pattern expected to continue on platform, the Queens women are left to play catchup in the swimming races, which they started by winning the opening 200 free relay on Thursday evening.
The team of Ryley Heck, Maren Patterson, Libby Livesay, and Abigail Zboran combined for a 1:30.78. They managed to hold off FGCU and a late charge from Mia Burke (22.42) on the anchor leg to win.
Liberty wasn’t far behind either, placing 3rd in 1:31.43. Freshman Aly Bozzuto led off for them in 22.23. That relay was without 50 free champion Kamryn Cannings, though Bozzutto finished 2nd the individual race in 22.09 on Wednesday.
That was one of two swimming wins for Queens on the day, as compared to three for Liberty, though.
Cannings, absent from the relay, won the next race the 100 fly in 51.42 to kick off the Flames’ victories for the day. That is a second-straight conference title in the event for the sophomore, again beating out Queens sophomore Maddie Foster for the second straight season (53.25). Cannings’ winning time last year was 51.26.
The see-saw swung back in favor of Queens in the 400 IM, where relay anchor Zboran won the 400 IM in 4:13.44. That’s another sophomore successfully defending a title at this meet, dropping a second off the lifetime best that won last year.
Liberty senior Sydney Stricklin continued the pattern in the 200 free, posting a 1:45.73 to win by more than a second. That swim also cracked the old conference record set by FGCU’s Elise Haan in 2016 during the CCSA era when FGCU was turning out All-America relays.
That time is Stricklin’s best by 1.65 seconds and is probably the performance-of-the-week at the halfway mark.
Liberty broke the pattern with a session-ending win in the 400 medley relay in 3:33.34, another new CCSA Record. That swim cleared the 3:33.92 that was again done by Florida Gulf Coast in 2016. Liberty‘s winning team included Stricklin (53.47), Bozzuto (59.16), Cannings (51.36), and Kahn (49.35). They had the fastest split on each of the last three legs in that race, with Cannings’ 51.36 butterfly split doing the most damage more than three seconds ahead of anyone else in the field.
The best backstroker was FGCU freshman Izzy Ackley in 52.23, which is another lifetime best and creeps her closer to an NCAA qualifying time. It took 52.28 to qualify last year, though anecdotally, the 100 backstroke seems like it has progressed this season.
Ackley made another lurch forward in Friday’s prelims session with a 51.97 that should get into the meet, though is still short of ‘lock’ territory.
While FGCU only has one event win of the meet so far, a Day 1 relay, they are likely to get some individual victories on Friday. They have stayed ahead of Queens mostly thanks to diving, but also thanks to swimmers moving way up from seeds. Jasmin Kroll, for example, dropped five seconds in the 200 free on Thursday morning, and Ackley dropped a second-and-a-half in the 100 fly.
Racing continues Friday with the 100 back, 100 breast, 200 fly, 800 free relay, and platform diving events.
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