FGCU Captures the Women’s CCSA Crown while UMBC Claims the Mens
- Wednesday, February 18- Saturday, February 21
- Athens, GA – Gabrielsen Natatorium
- Prelims/Finals Wednesday 5 PM (diving)/6 PM, Thursday-Saturday 10 AM/6 PM (Eastern Time Zone)
- Championship Central (Link to live results on this page once meet starts)
Women’s Session
Night four started off with a 1650 by Gardner-Webb freshman Lauren Oglesby that was more than 15 seconds under the Meet and CCSA record that was set back in 2009 by Leah Daniel. Oglesby took over the lead from Alona Kyselova (Incarnate Word) at the 600 mark, and she would never look back as she extended her lead to 22 seconds over the course of the race.
In her prelim swim Kira Toussaint of FGCU went under the last time invited to NCAAs last year (1:55.19) as she claimed the fastest lane for finals by clocking a 1:54.93. Toussaint added a little in finals but was still able to finish ahead of Liberty senior Emily Duff (1:55.31 to 1:56.50). The 100 free then saw Emma Svensson sweep the two shorter distances when she broke the meet record in a time of 48.59. This tied the seniors CCSA record that she set back in November. This capped off a very impressive meet from Svensson with her claiming a couple potential individual NCAA invites.
The final two individual events of the night were won by FGCU swimmers in NCAA B standards. Katie Armitage completed the breaststroke sweep with her win in the 200 (2:13.05). Her teammate Nina Schiffer was the only swimmer to dip under the 2:00 mark in her 200 fly victory. FGCU was able to impressively win all the 100 and 200 stroke events which speaks volumes to the depth of their team.
Platform diving was won by Incarnate Word’s Kalie Lents. Her teammate Kim Foster finished in second as the diving events came to a close. Closing out the CCSA meet FGCU’s team of Sara Hamilton (50.10), Katie Armitage (49.95), Kira Toussaint (48.81), and Emma Svensson (48.99) won the 400 free to complete their sweep of the relay events. The just missed the A cut but bettered both the Meet and CCSA records.
FGCU capped off what was a dominate CCSAs as they finished on top of the team scores by 336 point. After four nights of competition they claimed the title over 2014 Champion Liberty University. Individual Meet awards saw UIW’s Alona Kyselova crowned Women’s Most Outstanding Freshman of the Meet, and Emma Svensson win Women’s Most Outstanding Swimmer of the Meet, and Kali Lents from UIW win Diver of the Year. FGCU’s Neal Studd won Coach of the Meet and Incarnate Word’s Tommy Law won Diving Coach of the Year (for a second year in a row).
Men’s Session
The final night of competition started off with a meet record from Incarnate Word swimmer Nathan Coppock in the 1650 (15:31.60). This beat the meet record from his teammate, also in the race, Connor Hennessy. Coppock took that race out fast, and that almost hurt him in the end as second place finisher senior Robert Breen made a late charge to finish in 15:32.50. Both Coppock and Breen finished under the previous meet record, but it was the newcomer that ended up on top.
The next event of the night would see four freshmen finish in the top four positions. Aaron Moran came out with the victory (1:46.96), though, in a 200 backstroke final that featured 6 freshman and 2 sophomores overall. In the coming years this race will have some fierce competition on display, and the meet record of 1:43.96 could be challenged.
Last night’s 100 fly winner, Nathan Lile, touched first in the 100 freestyle in the second meet record of the night (44.26). UMBC sophomore Greg Spoerlein was the top seed coming out of prelims and took the race out with a bang in a 20.88. Lile was able to fight back and touched Spoerlein out by a mere .04 seconds. UMBC got revenge in the next event when the saw a 1-3 finish in the 200 breast. Leo Endres (1:58.05) led the charge that featured a final filled with five Retrievers.
Finished out the individual swims for the meet, David Moore collected his third victory in the 200 fly. The sophomore from Incarnate Word was also the champion in the 400 IM and 100 fly earlier in the meet. Pak Lam Wong of UMBC then won the platform diving event to close out individual competition.
UMBC took the final relay to cap off what was a great showing by the Retrievers at CCSAs. The team of Gregor Spoerlein (44.38), Trevor Doll (45.04), Lauri Kaei (45.45), and Robert Breen (44.17) finished in a time of 2:59.04 to touch ahead of Gardner-Webb (2:59.42). Spoerlein was able to avenge his loss against Lile from earlier in the night by outsplitting him 44.38 to 44.46.
The 2015 CCSA crown went to UMBC as they defeated Incarnate Word by a decisive 218 points. Coach of the Year went to GWU’s Mike Simpson and Diving Coach of the Year was won by UMBC’s Petar Trifonov and UIW’s Tommy Law. Outstanding Male Swimmer of the Championships and Scholar-Athlete of the year went to Nathan Lile. Ryan Green of UMBC took home the trophy for the Diver of the Year award.
Team Scores
Women
- FGCU- 1575
- Liberty University- 1239
- Georgia Southern University- 1110
- Gardner-Web University- 1026
- University of Incarnate Word- 851
- Campbell University- 598
- University North Carolina Asheville- 422
- University of North Florida- 324
- North Carolina A&T State University-196
- Virginia Military Institute-183
- Howard University- 143
Men
- UMBC- 996
- University of Incarnate Word -778
- Gardner-Webb University- 690
- New Jersey Institute of Tech- 292
- Virginia Military Institute- 224
- Howard University- 160