FINAL RESULTS
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern University men's and women's swimming and diving teams started the day off with a morning meet against the visiting Tampa Spartans on Saturday at the NSU Aquatic Complex. The NSU women secured a 113-92 win over the defending Sunshine State Conference champion Spartan women's team, while the men won 120-85.
Combined, the NSU men and women won 14 of the 22 events in the meet with each earning seven event wins.
Freshman
Marco Aldabe (Alicante, Spain) once again stood out for the men's team winning two individual events and posting NCAA provisional qualifying times in both. He won the 200-yard men's freestyle with a time of 1:41.68 edging the provisional standard by .22 seconds and swam a time of 1:50.43 in the 200-yard backstroke. Aldabe had already posted a provisional qualifying time in the 200-yard back earlier this year, but cut nearly a second off in Saturday's win.
Laura Gutierrez (Valencia, Spain) was the freshman standout for the NSU women after winning all three of the events she swam. She opened the meet with a combined win in the women's 400-yard medley relay. Racing with
Emma Wahlstrom (Fr., Stockholm, Sweden),
Ashley Bransford (Sr., Santa Cruz, Aruba) and
Alexandra Zatylny (Sr., Quebec, Canada), the quartet finished with a winning time of 4:01.67.
She went on to post an individual win in the women's 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:10.25 and was followed by teammate
Lauren Chapple (Jr., London, England) who finished second at 2:12.61. Her final win was in the women's 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:07.71, which was .30 seconds shy of making the NCAA provisional cut.
Joining Gutierrez for a win in the 400-yard medley relay, Bransford also secured two individual wins for the Sharks. She finished first in the women's 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:56.54 followed by
Brooke Munion's (Fr., Bethlehem, Pa.) second-place finish at 1:56.72. She rounded out the day with her third win in the women's 200-yard breaststroke at 2:25.17 winning the heat by over five seconds.
NSU swept the 1,650-yard freestyle with
Sara Akoubian (Sr., Run Dacula, Ga.) winning the women's event with a time of 18:13.85, while freshman
Andrew Pittman (Plano, Texas) won the men's heat with a time of 16:19.19.
The Sharks also posted individual wins in the men's 50 and 500-yard freestyle events, the men's 200-yard butterfly, men's 200-yard breaststroke as well as the women's 200-yard backstroke.
Esau Simpson (Sr., St. David's, Grenada) won the 50-free with a time of 21.19, while
Florian Mehlan (Sr., Moers, Germany) secured the top spot in the 500-free at 4:43.53.
Santiago Pombo (Jr., Bogota, Columbia) won the men's 200-fly with a time of 1:55.62 and
Thomas Aycart (Sr., Miami, Fla.) took first in the men's 200-breast at 2:10.03 to round out the men's individual event wins. Wahlstrom secured NSU's final individual event win in the women's 200-yard back with a time of 2:07.31.
The Sharks will now have three weeks to prepare for the fourth-annual Shark Invitational that will be hosted at the NSU Aquatic Complex Dec. 14-17. This will be a four-day event that will feature teams from Tampa, Florida Southern, Florida Tech, Lynn, Rollins, Saint Leo, Lenoir Rhyne, Bellarmine and Florida International.
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