5 Top Storylines for the Atlantic Coast Conference This Weekend

jason-coombs-ncaa-2015 (2)
Photo Courtesy: Andy Ringgold

The Florida State Seminoles will kick off the 2016 ACC season against the SEC’s Florida Gators in a Sunshine State showdown. FSU is ranked the No. 23 men’s team in the country, while Florida is No. 4. On the women’s side, the Seminoles aren’t ranked in the most recent poll, but Florida is ranked No. 14. The meet will take place in Gainesville at 2pm EST on January 2.

Top 5 Storylines:

  1. FSU and Florida both have tremendous depth in the women’s sprint events. The Seminoles, led by Samantha Pochowski and Alexi Smith, have two women under the 23 second barrier and six under 51 seconds in the 50 and 100 freestyles, respectively. Florida has also seen sucess with their sprinters, and the depth each team has will sure to come down to some nail-biting finishes.
  2. Two sisters will battle it out in the women’s distance races. Summer Finke leads FSU in the longer events, and her older sister Autumn Finke ranks second in those races for Florida. The two sisters’ season-best times in the 500 freestyle are close: Summer trails Autumn by less than one second.
  3. On the men’s side, watch out for some fast relays. Although Florida has posted some faster relay times so far this season, Florida State is less than one second behind in both the 200 medley and 200 free relays. Jason McCormick has been instrumental to FSU’s relays.
  4. The Seminoles’ Jason Coombs has seen success this season in both breaststroke events. The junior’s season-best is already more than 5 seconds ahead of the Gator’s top 200 breaststroker. Coombs is ranked 6th and 25th nationally in the 100 and 200 breaststrokes, respectively, with NCAA B-standards in both.
  5. How will the swimmers do coming off of winter training? Many teams don’t begin competing again until later in January. The athletes are sure to be fatigued at this point in training, but expect to see some fast swims from both teams.

ACC Schedule

[table “” not found /]
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x