FGCU S&D: CCSA Championship Day One Recap

At the end of the first day of the 2020 CCSA Swimming & Diving Championship, the FGCU swimming & diving team (8-8-1, 4-1 CCSA) sat at the top of the team standings. The Eagles earned 230 points to lead the field, followed by Liberty (223) and UIW (196) to round out the top three.

The 230 points are the most earned by any team in the CCSA on day one of the championship. Liberty's 219 from last year's meet stood as the previous record.

Freshman diver Reese Wakefield became the team's first individual champion of the meet, as she took home the 3m board with a final score of 310.00.

"This was a great first day," head coach Dave Rollins said. "We had a huge move-up in the 800 Free relay and a new season-best in the 200 medley. That was awesome to see. Our divers were also on fire. Congratulations to Reese for winning the title and for Delaney, Alyssa and Beau (Keene) for making the final in their first CCSA Championship. They have been so strong and fantastic teammates all year, so it's great to see hard work pay off. In addition, Natalie (Keffer) finished 11th in that event, adding more points for us."

In the first event of the day, the team of junior Petra Halmai, sophomore Meghan Schienvar, senior Elizabeth Zeiger and freshman Kaja Reinhardt laid down a 7:22.24 in the 800-yard freestyle relay, good for a second-place finish. That time was a 14-second drop from the Eagles' previous best from this season and bested third-place UIW by 1.63 seconds.

Earlier in the day, the diving prelims had seen a league-best four Eagles qualify for the 3m final, as Wakefield and her classmates Delaney Nelson, Alyssa Schmidt and Isabeau Keene all earned their spots in the eight-diver field. The final, which followed the opening relay, saw Nelson finish fifth with a score of 261.15, followed by seventh-place Schmidt (243.40) and eighth-place Keene (240.55) in addition to Wakefield's heroics. In that event alone, FGCU combined for a whopping 102 points.

The 200-yard medley relay was the day's final event. Entering with a seeded time of 1:41.45, the quartet of freshman Lucija Sulenta, Halmai, freshman Julia Rodriguez and sophomore Wiktoria Czarnecka swam a 1:40.54, good for second place. While the Liberty Flames did pick up their second relay win of the meet, the victory was not enough to overtake the Eagles for first place.

The CCSA Championships will continue on Thursday, beginning with the 10 a.m. morning prelim session. The afternoon session is slated for a 6 p.m. start and will see the finals for the 200 Free relay, the 500 Free, the 200 IM and the 50 Free.

Standings, Day One
1. FGCU – 230
2. Liberty – 223
3. UIW – 196
4. Georgia Southern – 125
5. Gardner-Webb – 104
6. Howard – 102
7. Campbell – 98
8. UNF – 94
9. UNC Asheville - 57