Sunshine State Conference Championships, Day Four

CLEARWATER, Florida, February 18. THE Nova Southeastern men's and women's swimming and diving teams performed at an elite level over the past four days, trumping their Sunshine State Conference competitors to clinch the 2012 SSC Championship titles.
"It's very exciting to see all the hard work and dedication that both our men's and women's teams have put in over the last few months has paid off in a pair of conference championships." head coach Hollie Bonewit-Cron said. "I challenged them at the very beginning of the season to be great every opportunity presented and they proved that here today."

The men have back-to-back SSC titles in as many years as the team's existence. This is the first time in the program's young two-year history that the women have clinched the title. The men started with, and held the lead all weekend with 908 points, 81 points ahead of second-place Florida Southern. The women also topped the leader board for the duration of the weekend in a close finish with 932 points, only 11 points ahead of second-place Tampa.

Bonewit-Cron added,"It was an extremely competitive meet and I congratulate all the teams in our conference. Our six teams stand out as some of the nation's best in Division II, which challenges the athletes and teams to compete at such a high level."

"Having gone undefeated in the regular season, the theme heading into this weekend was ‘the won battles won't mean as much unless you win the war'. They fought hard for every opportunity, they were behind each other and their enthusiasm was amazing. I'm proud of them for that and winning the war."

Every championship has a most valuable athlete and that honor went to NSU men's swimmer Armin Hornikel (Sr., Goose Creek, S.C.) who was credited with 57 points throughout the duration of the championships towards his team's total. Hornikel was also joined atop the men's individual leader board with teammate Oskar Nordstrand (Jr., Stockholm,Sweden), who also accumulated 57 total points.

"Armin had one of the best meets of his collegiate career", Bonewit-Cron said. "He committed himself to the goals we set for him at the beginning of the year, which put him in a position to earn ‘Swimmer of the Meet' distinction. I'm very proud of him for staying focused on those goals and this accomplishment."

Starting off the night for the men in the 1650-freestyle and claiming a huge victory was Addison Cates (Fr., Port Charlotte, Fla.) who set the SSC record with a B-cut qualifying time of 15:38.34. Jonas Grundstrom (Sr., Fagersta, Sweden) joined Cates on the podium with a second-place B-cut finish of 15:40.14. Also adding B-cut finishes for the Sharks in fourth place was Cameron Chambers (Jr., St. Pettersburg, Fla.) with a time of 15:54.52 and Chris Norris with a fifth-place time of 15:58.15

The women's spotlight race of the evening was also the 1650- free, where Erin Black(Jr., Fort Myers Fla.) took second place with an A-cut finishing time of 16:56.53. Black was joined by three other teammates, Rebecca Bergen (Fr., Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada), Kelsea Smith (Jr., Edina, Fla.) and Maria Hanft (Jr. Port Orange, Fla.) each with provisional qualifying times.

In the men's 200-yard breaststroke, Hornikel took first place with an "A" qualifying time of 1:58.08, which also set a new SSC record. Oscar Aldabe (So., Alicante, Spain) touched the finishing line in third with a B-cut time of 2:03.71, while Cameron Pfahler (Jr., Neptune Beach, Fla.) came in fifth with a B-cut time of 2:03.96.

Lauren Chapple (Fr., London, England) picked up another victory for the Sharks in the 200-yard butterfly. Her time of 2:03.10 set a new SSC record and met the NCAA provisional qualifying mark. Emma Lawrenz (Fr., Minnetonka, Minn.), who finished third in the event, also finished with a provisional time of 2:05.23 for NSU.

The men picked up a pair of provisional qualifying finishes in the 200-fly, as Santiago Pombo (Fr., Bogota, Colombia) finished with a time of 1:52.87 and John Michael Hayes (So.,Jacksonville, Fla.) finished less than a second later with a time of 1:53.50, good for fourth and fifth, respectively.

The men's 400-free relay team posted yet another NCAA automatic qualifying time, as Hornikel, Esau Simpson (So., St. David's, Grenada), William Bunge (Sr., Springfield, Mo.) and Ash Dougan (Sr., Tewkesbury, Glouchesterhire, England) came in second in the event with a time of 3:00.91.

In the men's 200-yard backstroke Josh Davis (So., Huron, S.D.) took the top finish for the Sharks in fifth place with a B-cut finishing time of 1:48.91. Joining Davis with a B-cut time was teammate Michael Zislin (Fr., Lighthouse Point, Fla.) who touched the wall at 1:53.11.

The foursome of Jessica Rocheleau (Fr., Jacksonville, Fla.), Ashley Aranda (Sr., Kenner, La.), Kelsea Smith (Jr., Edina, Fla.) and Chapple registered a third-place finish in the women's 400- free relay with a B-cut qualifying time of 3:31.60. NSU finished just seconds behind top-finishing Tampa with came in with a time of 3:26.73.

The NSU women placed three women in the top five in the 200-back, each touching the finishing line with B-cut qualifying times. Ashley Aranda was the top Shark finisher, placing second with a time of 2:02.43, while Devan Martin and Kelli Swanson came in fourth and fifth, respectively.

In the men's 100-free, four NSU student-athletes notched B-cut qualifying finishes. Simpson was the top finisher for NSU in eighth, with a time of 46.75. Dugan, Bunge and Florian Mehlan also recorded B-cut times in an event that saw 13 SSC swimmers topped the qualifying mark.

NSU placed two women in the top-three of the 200- breast, as Ewa Jamborska (Sr., Katowice, Poland) and Ashley Bransford (So., Santa Cruz, Aruba) placed second and third, respectively. Jamborska finished exactly one second behind the winner with a time of 2:18.75, while Bransford finished nine hundredths of a second behind her.

The above article is a press release submitted to Swimming World Magazine. It has been posted in its entirety without editing. Swimming World offers all outlets the chance to reach our audience by contacting us at Newsmaster@swimmingworldmagazine.com. However, Swimming World reserves the right to choose what material is posted.

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