Colorado’s Depth Keeps It In Control; Florida Top-End Talent is Scary Good

For full coverage of the ECC Club Championships, check out our event coverage page.

By Cici Zhang

ATLANTA, Georgia, April 20. FROM Gangnam Style to Harlem Shake, swimmers marched out on deck of the exciting second day of the East Coast Collegiate Swim Club National Championships. Day 2 revealed many surprises and shocks as well as super-fast swimming.

Florida continued its domination today and nearly swept the field at day 2 of the national championships, but Colorado's depth kept it atop the team rankings.

Seniors Will Waters and James Turner claimed two titles each for Florida. Waters in the 200-yard individual medley with a 1:53.14 and 200-yard freestyle with a 1:43.46 and Turner in the 50-yard freestyle with a 20.66, 50-yard butterfly with a 22.86 and following close behind Waters in the 200-yard freestyle.

The only men's title Florida missed on night two was the 100-yard breast, where Darton's TJ Bland turned in a meet-record time of 54.60.

Winning both the 4×100-yard freestyle relay and 4×50-yard individual medley relay in women and men's, Florida pose a huge threat to Colorado for the team titles.

Icelandic Olympian Sarah Bateman also won her two individual events, setting meet records in both the 50-yard freestyle and 50-yard butterfly with an astonishing 22.80 and 24.56 respectively. Junior Jeff Reardon also stepped up and took home gold in the 100-yard backstroke for Florida with a 51.10.

The biggest surprise came from Darton College from Albany, Georgia. Anna Macht made a huge showing and claimed two individual titles for Darton in the 100-yard breaststroke and 100-yard backstroke. She broke both records with a 1:05.45 in the breaststroke and a 58.80 in the backstroke and touched 3 seconds faster than her opponents.

Diver Crawford Berry also claimed 1st place in 3 meter diving for Darton. Darton College snuck in with those massive upsets of Colorado to move up the team title rankings.

Colorado followed closely behind the Florida Gators in many events. However, Colorado's Ellesse Spaeth claimed her first gold medal this year in the 200-yard individual medley with a 2:12.31. Margaret Fox also finished first in the 1000-yard Freestyle with an 11:10.05 out touching teammate Kate Booth by .12 seconds. Booth came back with a win in the 200-yard freestyle and setting a new ECC meet record with a 1:57.42. Toshi Hirabyashi claimed his second title for Colorado this year in the 1000-yard freestyle with a 9:57.01.

Hannah Herbold of Metropolitan State in Denver, Colorado claimed the women's 3 mtr diving followed by Val Wilkins and Hanna Le of Colorado.

Colorado and Florida are still head-to-head in every event with many teams seeing the chance to take a title from them. The last day of the 2013 East Coast Collegiate Club Swimming and Diving National Championships are sure to have more surprises and upsets in store.

Top 5 team scores through day 2:

Combined: Colorado 1,470, Florida 1,103.5, Missouri 659, Penn State 585, and Connecticut 540
Women: Colorado 753, Florida 485.5, Connecticut 328, Missouri 299, and Penn State 272
Men: Colorado 717, Florida 618, Missouri 360, North Carolina State 322, and Penn State 313

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