Tampa Women, Southern Men Take Leads at SSC Swimming Championship

CLEARWATER, Fla. - With the second day of action completed at the 2013 Sunshine State Conference Swimming Championship, Tampa has taken over the lead in the women's standings, and Florida Southern has edged ahead of the men's field.

Action continues through Saturday at the Long Center in Clearwater, Fla.

Tampa sits atop the women's standings with 367 points, just ahead of Nova Southeastern with 355. Florida Southern is third with 283 points. Saint Leo is fourth with 131, while Rollins is fifth with 107. Florida Tech holds the sixth spot with 103 points, and Lynn is seventh with 96.

Florida Southern leads the men's standings with 351 points. Nova Southeastern is second with 313 points. Tampa is third with 273 points, and Saint Leo is fourth with 195. Florida Tech occupies the fifth spot with 150 points, and Rollins is sixth with 112.

Thursday's finals began with the 200-yard freestyle relay. Tampa won both the men's and women's race. The Spartan women set a new meet record with a time of 1:33.85. Amy O'Brien, Erin Plachy, Kylie Piche, and Kristine Kassl joined in the effort. Tampa's men also set a new meet record with their winning mark of 1:20.83. Swimming for UT were Khalid Aldaboos, David Humphrey, Felipe Manzo, and Derek Krell.

A couple of NCAA automatic qualifying times were set in the women's 500-yard freestyle. Florida Southern's Ali Crenshaw took first place with a time of 4:51.41. Tampa's Heather Glenday also logged an NCAA automatic qualifying mark of 4:54.23.

In the men's 500 freestyle, Nova Southeastern's Oskar Nordstrand took gold with an NCAA automatic qualifier mark of 4:24.71.

The women's 200 individual medley went to Tampa's Alex Hipolito, who logged a meet-record time of 2:03.68.

In the men's 200 IM, Florida Southern's Jeb Halfacre took the top prize in 1:47.97, setting a new meet record and registering an NCAA automatic qualifying mark.

New meet records also came in both of the 50-yard freestyle races. Florida Southern's Kelsey Gouge took first in 23.32, while Saint Leo's Matheus Assis won the men's sprint in 20.10.

A busy slate of action concluded with the 400-yard medley relays. Florida Southern took both wins, with the women clocking a time of 3:47.50 and the men finishing in 3:16.66. Powering the Moccasin women were Lauren Reynolds, Kelsey Gouge, Catie Carden, and Stephanie Doran. For the FSC men, Jeb Halfacre, Miguel Ferreira, Bruce Janzen, and Robbie Swan combined for the victory.

Action continues at the Long Center on Friday, with preliminaries at 10 a.m. and finals at 6 p.m. The action will also be streamed live on sunshinestateconference.com courtesy of TampaSpartans.TV. For a full schedule and meet updates, visit the SSC Swimming Championship Central page.