Division II Meet Recap: Saint Leo Splits Against Tampa

Photo Courtesy: Kyle Staggs

Some of the biggest teams in the Sunshine State Conference finished their regular dual meet competitions this week, including Nova Southeastern University who looks poised to make a run for both championships at the conference meet in a couple weeks. Read about those final dual meets in this week’s Division II Meet Recap.

Nova Southeastern vs. University of Miami (women only)

The #3 Nova Southeastern University women’s team closed out their dual meet season with a loss to Miami on Saturday, 162-98. That leaves their dual meet record at 8-2, but still undefeated against Sunshine State Conference teams. The women will next compete at the SSC Championships on Feb 16-19 where they will look to unseat Florida Southern as the reigning conference champions.

While the Sharks recorded multiple provisional qualifying times throughout the dual meet they only were able to record two event wins against the Hurricane throughout the meet. Junior Malin Westman picked up Nova’s first win of the meet in the 100 breaststroke, touching first in 1:03.54 before finishing second in the 200 breast (2:17.78). That 100 breast time was her fastest dual meet performance of the year, and both times were B cuts.

The Sharks second win came from junior Courtney DeVeny, who won the 400 IM in 4:26.87. That is the fastest the junior has been in a dual meet in her college career and is just a tenth behind what she went her freshman year at the 2015 NSU Winter Invitational. That was the year that DeVeny won the 400 IM at NCAA’s, a big signal that she will be a force to be reckoned with in March.

Other notable swims included Emma Wahlstrom hitting B cuts in the 200 free (1:50.44) and 500 free (4:58.32), both in-season bests for this year that continue to show she is set up well heading into championships. Full results of the meet can be found here.

Tampa vs. Saint Leo

Tampa and Saint Leo split their final dual meet of the season, with the Tampa men winning a close meet 134-128 and the Saint Leo women pulling an upset 140-122. Saint Leo’s women’s team was actually the only unranked team competing at the meet, making their win a significant one. Tampa is the current #12 (men) and #15 (women) teams in Division II, while Saint Leo’s only ranking was #19 for their men heading into the meet.

For the women, Saint Leo came out swinging with a win in the 200 medley relay and didn’t look back. All told, the Lions won 11 of the 14 contested events throughout the meet, taking down the Spartans with high level swims across multiple events. Two notable swimmers were senior Nicole Weber and junior Natalia Garriock, who accounted for five wins between the two of them. Weber won three events throughout the meet, including the 200 breaststroke (2:17.82), the 100 breaststroke (1:05.65), and the 200 IM (2:09.22). That 200 breaststroke was good for an NCAA B cut. Garriock won two individual events: the 200 (1:54.61) and 100 (51.14) freestyles. Her 100 free was also an NCAA B cut.

The men’s meet was also close, but Tampa was able to edge out Saint Leo for the win despite the Lions winning 10 of the 14 contested events. Sophomore Lucas Dengler-Harles provided two wins for the Lions in an unconventional double, winning the 1000 (9:20.06) and 100 freestyle (46.00), the former of which was an NCAA B cut. Junior Jan Urbaniak also hit an NCAA B cut in his win in the 500 free (4:36.29). Despite Saint Leo winning the majority of the events in the meet, Tampa’s depth propelled them to an ultimate meet win. Sophomore Sean Rodney was the only double event winner for the Spartans, leading 1-2 finishes in the 200 butterfly (1:53.88) and 200 IM (1:57.03) for the Spartans that ultimately helped make the difference in handing them the meet.

You can see the full results of this meet here. While these performances have to be encouraging for the St. Leo teams, they will really need to capitalize on every member of their team if they want to challenge Tampa at the conference level. Both teams have small roster sizes relative to their conference opponents, which will definitely affect both teams’ scoring potential outside of the dual meet format. But these wins will definitely provide some confidence heading into the meet as both teams will look to improve their fifth place finishes from last year.

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