NCAA Division II Championship Blog, Day 1: Southern Connecticut State’s Shane Pelton

COLUMBIA, Missouri, March 12. THIS week, Swimming World is proud to present an athlete blog to give a bit of an inside look to the NCAA Division II Championships held in Columbia. Shane Pelton of Southern Connecticut State University will be checking in with regular content from the meet.

Pelton is a senior swimmer and business management major. Pelton, a Malvern, Pa., native, is a three-time Metropolitan Conference champion and is swimming in his first NCAA Division II Championship meet this season.

Hey guys. My name is Shane Pelton and I'm a senior at Southern Connecticut State University. This is my first trip to the NCAA Division II Championships. I'm looking forward to a fun-filled week with fast swimming and an exciting atmosphere.

My first thoughts are that this facility is unreal. The University of Missouri's Student Recreation Center has everything a student could possibly dream of having. It even has a spa, a grotto, even a lazy river. What's not to like! The pool is pretty incredible too!

It's a very new 50-meter pool, with a separate diving well that is painted navy blue and has the Missouri Tiger on the bottom. So far, the atmosphere seems pretty relaxed with teams just spending time getting adapted to the pool. Looks like there will be some fierce competition this year. Get ready for some fast swims.

The diving qualifier took place today and looks like there will be some intense competition. Ali Bronson and Jay Flores both made the qualifier and will be representing Southern Connecticut in the meet. Congrats. The banquet that occurred tonight had some delicious pasta and chicken with some chocolate mousse dessert. It was very tasty.

But I do have to say, University of Tampa made an impact dressed as motorcyclists. They made themselves stand out, and I thought it was pretty clever idea. This was a team tradition that they have been having for 15 years, and every year they come up with better ideas. I even saw some men dressed up as women, wearing dresses and mini skirts. One guy even stuffed his shirt a bit! Haha. Well, tomorrow is the big day and I hope to have a lot more news for you. I have to go finish shaving my body and get ready for my first event of the week: 200 IM. Be ready, Division II is about to make some noise! Good night.

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