Nova Southeastern Still Atop Leaderboards With One Day Remaining at SSC Swimming Championship

Oskar Nordstrand, Stephen Swan, & Norbert Kovacs led a men’s 200 free with five DII AQ times. (Photo by Jim Hogue)

The assault on the Sunshine State Conference Championship swimming records continued Friday night, as day three of the event produced seven more meet records to bring the three-day total to 19.

Florida Southern claimed four of Friday’s meet records, all on the men’s side. 

The Moccasins’ 200-yard medley relay team of Jeb Halfacre, Miguel Ferreira, Bruce Janzen and Alex Peterson won with a meet-record and automatic qualifying time of 1:29.79. 

In a 200-yard freestyle race that saw the top five finishers produce NCAA Division II automatic qualifying times, FSC’s Stephen Swan won in a meet-record time of 1:37.97.  Right behind him at 1:38.50 was Nova Southeastern’s Oskar Nordstrand.  Tampa’s Norbert Kovacs was third at 1:38.78, FSC’s Allan Gutierrez was fourth at 1:38.81, and Tampa’s Jeffrey Fiore was fifth at 1:39.08.

FSC’s Ferreira took the gold medal in the 100-yard breaststroke, posting an automatic qualifying time of 54.27.  Moccasin freshman Luis Rojas wrapped up the day by winning the 100-yard backstroke in a time of 49.23.

Despite Florida Southern’s success Friday, the team standings remained unchanged through three days of completion.  Nova Southeastern leads the men with 652 points.  FSC is second with 567.  Tampa is third with 534, followed by Saint Leo (295), Rollins (200) and Florida Tech (153).  On the women’s side, Nova Southeastern leads with 653 points.  Tampa is second with 620.  Florida Southern is third with 477, followed by Rollins (257), Saint Leo (235) and Florida Tech (94).

Tampa’s women set meet records in the 400-yard individual medley and 100-yard butterfly.  Alexandra Hipolito’s time of 4:25.82 set a new mark for the 400-yard individual medley.  Lindsay Calimer did the same in the 100-yard butterfly with her time of 56.04, topping her own record from last year.

Nova Southeastern produced a pair of automatic qualifiers in the men’s 400-yard individual medley, as Oscar Aldabe won in a meet-record time of 3:54.39, and teammate Jonas Grundstrom was second at 3:56.63.

Saturday’s events on the final day of competition at The Long Center in Clearwater will be the 1650-yard freestyle, 200-yard backstroke, 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard breaststroke, 200-yard butterfly and 400-yard freestyle relay.  Preliminaries will be held at 10 a.m. with the finals set to begin at 5 p.m.