Thanksgiving Begins a Break for Sunshine State Conference

By Abby Boone, Swimming World College Intern

LAKELAND – A look at the calendar shows some time without meets for the Sunshine State Conference, that’s because after a busy past few weeks, teams are taking a break for some turkey.

For Thanksgiving, most SSC swimmers will head to their own home or that of a teammate, then come back for the rest of the semester to train until it is time for the fifth-annual Nova Southeastern Shark Invitational, from Dec. 18-21.

Nova, Lynn, Tampa, Florida Southern, and Rollins will all be swimming at the meet, alongside multiple teams from outside of the conference. St. Leo will be swimming at the Savannah College of Design Invitational from Dec. 4-6. Florida Tech has no meets in the month of December, and is instead focusing solely on training. 

For the foreign swimmers who compete in the SSC, Thanksgiving is a tradition many of them never experienced before coming to college. Now, they appreciate the holiday, seeing it both as an extra few days off of school, a chance for a good meal, and possibly an opportunity to see another part of the country. Diego Gimenez, a swimmer at Florida Southern College (FSC), enjoys the holiday.

“There is good food and we don’t have class, so what could be better? Plus, I enjoy going home with Evan [a teammate]. It is fun to see his home and how his family celebrates Thanksgiving.”

“My freshman year, a teammate came home with me,” says FSC swimmer Lauren Reynolds. “He had never experienced Thanskgiving or Chicago, and we had a lot of fun eating Thanksgiving dinner, exploring the city, and doing some Black Friday shopping. He was overwhelmed by the city and the snow, but he loved the experience.”

Thanksgiving is the first chance many swimmers have to go home since the start of the school year, and they appreciate it for the break that it gives.

A Look Back at the Past Two Weeks

On Nov. 15, St Leo swam at Tampa. The women tied, and the St. Leo men took the win. Tampa swept the 50 free, led by Erin Plachy (24.37), and Allison Chandler won the 200 back (2:11.01), while St. Leo’s Joanna Dembska won the 200 free (1:52.84) and 100 free (52.50) and Nicole Weber took the 100 breast (1:05.02). For the men, St. Leo won every event, but in the 50 free, Tampa’s Khalid Aldaboos (20.82) was a close second behind Matteus Assis (20.63), and Jordan Augier (51.91) was not far behind Rhet Rheinlander (50.77) in the 100 back. St. Leo’s Jan Unbaniak (9:38.07) dominated the 1000 free.

Lynn swam against Rollins, ultimately tying the meet. Lynn’s Rebecca Matthews and Tieri Erasito dominated their events, with Matthews winning the 200 IM (2:07.22), 100 free (53.08), and 500 free (5:25.68), and Erasito winning the 200 free (2:00.90) and 100 fly (1:00.52). Lynn won every individual event except the 1000 free, which Rollin’s Morgan Cole won (11:23.34) by 14 seconds. Maddie Minetree (25.91) also came in close second in the 50 free behind Lynn’s Julia Pedersen (25.56), and brought the meet to a tie by coming in 1-2 in the 200 free relay.

On November 21, Tampa beat Florida Technical University (FIT). Tampa women swept the 200 fly 1-2-3, with first place Jesse North (2:11.82) finishing over ten seconds ahead of FIT’s first finisher, Faryn Duff (2:21.96). Tampa’s Khalid Aldaboos and Jordan Augier were close in the 50 free (20.11 and 20.20 respectively), and in the 100 free Augier was again close behind teammate Jeremy Parker (46.76 and 46.04 respectively). FIT’s Shelby Pearce (4:44.67) and Camden Johnston (4:19.88) won the 400 IM, and FIT Takashi Worrell won the 200 fly (1:55.30) over Tampa’s Victor Philaire (1:57.77)

The next day, the Tampa swim team split up, with half the team swimming against Nova and the other half at Rollins. Tampa defeated Rollins on both sides, beginning with close wins in the 200 medley relay; for the women, Tampa (1:54.33) beat Rollins (1:55.38), and for the men, Tampa (1:42.03) barely beat Rollins (1:42.06). Tampa’s Kameron Kilpatrick won the 200 free (1:49.97) by three seconds, and Paige Dunham took the 200 fly (2:16.66) by more than 8 seconds.

Against Nova, Tampa went 1-2-3 in the 100 breast, led by Clayton Clemens (1:00.04), and did the same in the 200 breast, again with Clemens (2:12.00) at the head. Nova’s Brooke Munion and Shane Kleinbeck won the 200 free (1:55.95 and 1:42.66 respectively), and Malin Westman (1:05.89) won the 100 breast by almost 5 seconds, and the 200 breast (2:20.86) by 11. Emma Walstrom dominated the 200 back (2:07.36), as did Marco Aldabe (1:53.67) for the men. Thiago Sickert came in first in the 50 free (21.01), 100 free (46.65), and 100 fly (50.08). 

SSC Swimmer of the Week

The Sunshine State Conference chose Gabe Langner of Saint Leo University and Rebecca Matthews of Lynn University as the Swimmers of the Week for the week of November 15-21. Langner recorded personal bests in the 100 breast (59.88), 200 breast (2:07.76), and 200 IM (1:55.79). He is currently seeded 14th in the DII nation in the 200 breast. Matthews currently holds 2nd place in the 200 IM (2:05.74) in the DII nationals and sits at 5th in the 100 free (52.18).

For the week of November 22-28, Thiago Sickert and Malin Westman, both of Nova Southeastern, are the swimmers of the week. This is Sickert’s third time as swimmer of the week, a title he earned this week for his efforts in the pool against Tampa. He placed first in the 50 free with a DII top-20 time of 20.01, and according to collegeswimming.com, he has the top DII 100 fly time in the nation (48.12). Westman holds the seventh fastest DII time in the nation in the 200 breast (2:20.86), and came in first in the 100 breast (1:05.89) and 200 IM (2:09.70) in the meet against Tampa.

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Kelsey Lynch
Kelsey Lynch
9 years ago

Great job

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