Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. -- It wasn’t the result the Nova Southeastern University men’s and women’s swimming teams were hoping for, but on Friday both dropped an out of division dual meet to the Florida Atlantic Owls. The Shark women lost 130-66, while the men dropped the meet 132.5-67.5 at the NSU Aquatic Complex.

“Our team had a tough time matching up against Florida Atlantic this afternoon,” head coach Hollie Bonewit-Cron said. “We had some good swims, but also swims where we could have stepped up and challenged better.” We have to take advantage of every opportunity to race. We will need to work on this area to continually move forward this season.”

Florida Atlantic opened the racing with the two best times in the women’s 400-yard medley relay. However, NSU’s “A” relay quartet of Ashley Aranda (Jr., Kenner, La.), Ewa Jamborska (Jr., Katowice, Poland), Nichole Schultz (Roseville, Calif.) and Nicole Gaynor (So., Orlando, Fla.) finished a close third at 4:04.19. Devan Martin (So., Duluth, Ga.), Courtney Wilson (Fr., Ft. Myers, Fla.), Marissa Leonard (Fr., Overland Park, Kan.) and Ashley Bransford (Fr., Santa Cruz, Aruba) teamed up as an exhibition to finish at 4:26.32.

Eight relays went in the men’s 400-yard medley relay with FAU coming finishing in the top two spots. NSU’s “A” relay Josh Davis (Fr., Huron, S.D.), Armin Hornikel (Jr., Goose Creek, S.C.), Jorge Ospina (Jr., Lazumillos, Venezuela), and Ash Dougan (Jr., Tewksbury, England) finished a close third at 3:30.00, while Illya Prikhodko (Fr., Orlando, Fla.), Cameron Pfahler (So., Neptune Beach, Fla.), Darren Rubenchik (Fr., Ontario, Canada) and Nathan Caldwell (Fr., Naples, Fla.) teamed for a fourth place finish at 3:39.62. NSU’s “C” and “D” relays raced as exhibitions to finished sixth and eighth respectively. Tyler Wilson (Fr., Ft. Myers, Fla.), Nic Howell (Fr., Virginia Beach, Va.), John Michael Hays (Fr., Jacksonville, Fla.), and Jim Shelley (Fr., Charlottesville, Va.) finished at 3:47.82, while Roberto Duran (Fr., Orlando, Fla.), Josh Anderson (Fr., Ft. Myers, Fla.), Jonas Grundstrom (Jr., Fagersta, Sweden) and Chris Norris (Fr., Tallahassee, Fla.) finished at 3:58.31.

In the women’s 1000-yard freestyle, NSU took third, fifth and sixth. Alexandra Zatylny (Fr., Quebec, Canada) was the top Shark finishing at 11:05.40, while Kelley Yakymiw (Fr., Hollywood, Fla.) and Kristen Ghandour (Fr., South Neptune Beach, Fla.) finished at 11:26.71 and 13:00.90 respectively. In the men’s 1000-yard free, Jonathan Key (Fr., Biltmore Lakes, N.C.) bested his season top time by nearly 10 seconds finishing fourth at 10:08.33. Last week’s D-II National Swimmer of the Week, Grundstrom, finished fifth at 10:08.97, while Norris finished sixth at 10:09.52. Alex Tarr (Jr., Everett, Wash.) raced as an exhibition to finish at 10:31.23.

Aranda (1:59.73) finished with her season-best time in the women’s 200-yard free for third place, while Leonard (2:04.80) finished fifth. On the men’s side, Ospina picked up NSU’s first win on the day finished with a season best time of 1:42.14. Caldwell (1:46.30) finished tied for fourth, while Davis finished fifth at 1:50.26. Eddie Bandi (Fr., Valrico, Fla.) finished at 1:50.71 as an exhibition.

Gaynor picked up the Sharks’ only other win in the women’s 50-yard free finishing at 0:25.05. Bransford finished fifth at 0:25.82. In a close men’s freestyle sprint, Dougan (0:21.94) finished fourth, while Shelley (0:22.77) and William Bunge (Jr., Springfield, Mo.) (0:23.05) finished sixth and seventh respectively.

Jamborska finished second in the women’s 200-yard IM with a season best time of 2:11.89, while Chrissy Parsons (Fr., Navarre, Fla.) finished fifth at 2:17.97. Schultz (2:21.29) and Wilson (2:34.02) finished sixth and eighth, with Wilson’s time counting as an exhibition. In the men’s 200-yard IM, Hornikel (1:58.30) finished fourth and Pfahler (2:01.47) and Hayes (2:02.69) finished sixth and seventh. Duran (2:16.16) finished eighth as an exhibition.

Schultz (2:17.92) and Martin (2:20.88) raced in the women’s 200-yard butterfly and finished fourth and sixth, while Ospina (1:52.28) paced the men’s efforts finishing second. Rubenchik (2:01.36) followed in fifth, while Brothman (2:02.00) finished sixth. Duran raced as an exhibition finishing at 2:06.25.

The Owls took the top three spots in the women’s 100-yard freestyle, while Gaynor (0:55.80) topped out at fourth to lead the Sharks. Bransford (0:57.15) and Zatylny (0:57.36) finished fifth and sixth respectively. FAU also took the top three times on the men’s side with NSU’s Caldwell (0:48.31) finishing as the team leader in the same event. Dougan (0:48.99) finished fifth, and Bunge (0:49.37) finished sixth.

In the women’s 200-yard backstroke, NSU’s Aranda finished just tenths of a second out of first with a time of 2;12.96, while Martin (2:18.68) finished sixth with her season best time in the event. Parsons (2:20.67) finished seventh, while Yakymiw finished with an exhibition time of 2:21.80. Davis (1:56.81) finished tops in third for NSU on the men’s side, followed by Rubenchik’s time of 2:04.26 for sixth. Prikhodko (2:07.26) finished seventh, while Wilson’s exhibition time of 2:08.07 was good enough for eighth.

Leonard (5:27.20), Wilson (6:02.54) and Ghandour (6:25.95) finished fourth through sixth respectively in the women’s 500-yard freestyle, while Hayes (4:54.05), Norris (4:56.00) and Grundstrom (4:58.53) finished fifth, sixth and seventh for the Shark men. Tarr finished at 5:09.09 as an exhibition.

In the final individual events, Jamborska’s time of 2:25.02 was the second-best time in the women’s 200-yard breaststroke and she picked up top points for NSU with top time racing as an exhibition by FAU. Bransford finished with a time of 2:29.50, and Parsons finished at 2:39.92. Ghandour raced an exhibition time of 3:07.27. As with the women, FAU raced only as exhibitions in the men’s 200-yard breast, but NSU’s Hornikel finished with the third best time at 2:11.21 and top points for the Sharks. Pfahler finished at 2:16.65, while Key finished at 2:17.15. Howell raced an exhibition time of 2:17.88.

The race day ended with the men’s and women’s 400-yard freestyle relay. NSU’s quartet of Zatylny, Leonard, Martin, and Yakymiw finished with the second best time at 3:49.38 and top points, while FAU raced all exhibitions. in the men’s relay, Bunge, Brothman, Prikhodko and Shelley finished with the third best time of 3:24.01 and top points, while Bandi, Key, Anderson and Wilson finished at 3:26.75. FAU raced as exhibitions.

The Sharks will return to action when they travel to South Miami to take on Division I Florida International at 2 p.m.