FGCU S&D: CCSA Championship Preview

he quest for the FGCU swimming and diving program's (6-8, 2-1 CCSA) 10th overall league title begins tomorrow morning as the four-day meet will take place at the Liberty Natatorium from Feb. 20-23 hosted by Liberty.

"We are primed and ready to go!" head coach Dave Rollins said. "We have some people doing new events, which you don't typically see at a championship meet, but this hasn't been a typical season and we're not a typical team. I think we're going to see some very special performances this week and we're excited to celebrate every single one of them."

Season Highlights:
Entering the week with an overall 6-8 record, FGCU opened the 2018-19 season with arguably one of its toughest schedules in program history. The slate included a home-opener against current No. 8 Florida as the Eagles also competed in a road dual meet against Auburn, who is ranked No. 7. FGCU began the month of October with a select group competing at FIU in the in TYR Classic. Over the two-day stretch, the Green and Blue collected 478.5 points, to finish ahead of FIU (454.5) and Big 12 foe TCU (390) to take home the title.

Despite placing ninth out of 10 teams which featured a quartet of nationally ranked opponents, FGCU collected 119 points at the Georgia Tech Invite back in November. In that three-day period, the Eagles etched a numerous amount of personal best times, some of which are still season-best marks and top times in the CCSA.

FGCU capped off the months of December and January going 3-3 in dual meets, with its last full team competition coming back on Jan. 26 against FIU.

FGCU Championship History:
The Eagles made it four-straight conference championships and nine overall at the 2018 CCSA Swimming and Diving Championships, winning by more than 110 points (1,612, second-most in championship history) over runner-up Liberty (1,501.5). Senior Gracie Redding (Orlando, FL/FSU) took home the Eagles' sixth-straight Most Outstanding Female Swimmer of the Meet as she won the 50 and 100 free titles. In addition, coach Rollins repeated as the CCSA Women's Swimming Coach of the Year.

Prior to the 2014 championships when the Eagles finished second behind Liberty, FGCU won five-consecutive CCSA titles from 2009-13 – less than two years after the program's inception in the fall of 2007. Furthermore, after going 2-1 against conference opponents this season, the Green and Blue are now 39-2 all-time against CCSA foes.

Scoring:
There will be three scored finals for each individual event, as 27 individuals will score in a trio of finals consisting of nine swimmers.

Individual event scoring: 35-31-30-29-28-27-26-25-24-22-19-18-17-16-15-14-13-12-10-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1

Relay scoring: 70-62-60-58-56-54-52-50-48-44

How to Keep Up:
The four-day meet will have livestats and will be livestream on the Big South Sports Network.

Fans can also keep up with FGCU on Twitter: @FGCU_SwimDive

Livestats Link: http://upload.swimcloud.com/118546/

Livestream Link: http://bigsouthsports.com/watch/?Live=5148