FORT LAUDERDALE – After back-to-back days of battling inclement weather passing through South Florida, the Nova Southeastern University men's and women's swimming teams continue to make waves in the pool at the NSU Sharks All-Florida Invitational on Saturday. After two straight days of competition, the Sharks men are in second place with 623 points, while the women maintain fourth with 388.
The University of Florida men and women continue to lead the small field. The Gators men lead with 779 points, while Keiser is third at 405. On the women's side, the Gators women lead a five-team field with 765. Florida Gulf Coast (669) and Miami (464) are second and third respectively, while Keiser remains fifth going into the final day.
Perhaps one of the more exciting moments in the second day finals was in the men's 800 freestyle relay. The NSU A-relay jumped out in front and led for most of the event. However, on the final turn in the last 200, Florida's anchor leg, Mark Szaranek managed to swim a final 1:37.91 split making up over five seconds to overtake
Marco Aldabe in the last lap. Although NSU fell by three-tenths of a second, the managed to securing an NCAA provisional qualifying time at 6:45.21.
Day two began with the women's 200 medley relay. With
Emma Wahlstrom,
Malin Westman,
Alina Schulhofer and
Sydney Panzarino teamed for a third-place finished with a time of 1:48.43. On the men's side,
Till Barthel,
Anton Lobanov,
Thiago Sickert and Mlique Elder pulled together a solid win edging out Florida in the same event by less than a tenth of a second with a winning time of 1:32.36.
In the men's 400 individual medley, although Aldabe finished second by just over a tenth of a second, he posted his first NCAA provisional qualifying time of the season at 4:01.26. Sickert posted his own individual provisional qualifying time in the 100 butterfly with a time of 49.21, while Lobanov won the championship final of the 100 breaststroke with a time of 56.23.
On the women's side, Wahlstrom posted a provisional qualifying time in the 200 free with a time of 1:53.65. In the women's 100 breaststroke, Westman finished second overall in the championship final with a time of 1:05.64 just missing the provisional cut by half a second.
The final day of the NSU Sharks Invitational will begin on Sunday, Feb. 25 with prelims beginning at 9 a.m. followed by finals at 4 p.m.
