{"id":233673,"date":"2016-12-14T12:33:10","date_gmt":"2016-12-14T19:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=233673"},"modified":"2016-12-14T12:33:23","modified_gmt":"2016-12-14T19:33:23","slug":"division-ii-meet-preview-florida-teams-clash-down-south","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/division-ii-meet-preview-florida-teams-clash-down-south\/","title":{"rendered":"Division II Meet Preview: Florida Teams Clash Down South"},"content":{"rendered":"

This weekend will see three of the biggest teams in Florida come together in Clearwater for the Spartan Invitational. With three of the teams in the same conference and with a significant scoring presence at NCAA\u2019s last year, we should expect some fast swims out of this meet. Read about who to watch below in this week\u2019s Division II Meet Preview!<\/span><\/p>\n

Meet Of The Week: Spartan Invitational<\/b><\/h3>\n
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Photo Courtesy: Sunshine State Conference<\/p><\/div>\n

This weekend Florida Southern, Nova Southeastern, University of Tampa, and Lenoir-Rhyne will compete at the 2016 Spartan Invitational in Clearwater, Florida. Last year, Tampa won both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s meets, scoring 1468 and 1084 points respectively over the four day meet. Florida Southern was just behind Tampa in second, more than 450 points back on the men\u2019s side but only about 80 points back on the women\u2019s side.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nova Southeastern will join the competition for the first time this year, which should make this an interesting battle between the three strongest teams in the Sunshine State Conference. At the 2016 SSC Championships, Florida Southern was 1st, Nova 2nd, and Tampa 3rd on both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s sides. The men\u2019s meet was particularly close, with those three teams only separated by 70 points. All three men\u2019s teams were also within the top 10 at NCAA\u2019s last year (Florida Southern was 3rd, Nova 4th, and Tampa 9th), so expect some fast times to come out of the tight competition. <\/span><\/p>\n

This year it looks like Nova Southeastern will be the team to beat. The Sharks are currently the top-ranked team of the meet for this season, sitting in 2nd (men) and 4th (women) nationally according to the latest CSCAA poll. While the team battle will definitely be fun to watch, be sure to keep an eye out on a few swimmers who have yet to have a full rest this season:<\/span><\/p>\n