Florida Tech Panthers Swim Team Breaks Multiple School Records on Final Day of SSC Championships
By Jerry Durney, Florida Tech News Bureau // February 21, 2023
BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – The Florida Tech men’s and women’s swim teams completed the 2023 Sunshine State Conference Championships on Sunday as the action concluded with 1650 Free, 100 Free, 200 Back, 200 Breast prelims, B-Finals and A-Finals all take place along with the 400 Free Relays.
At the conclusion of five days of competition, the men’s team finished fifth with a total of 287 points, while the women’s team took seventh place with a total of 249 points.
100 Free
Nicole Rautemberg set her third school record of the weekend during the prelims with a time of 51.42 and then promptly broke it again during the A Final with a 51.26 finish that was good for seventh place.
Rautemberg’s record time in the morning broke the previous record of 51.69 set by Valentina Carvajal at the 2017 SSC Championships. Shaelyn Rutta placed eighth in the B Final with a 53.44 finish.
200 Back
John Fonnotto earned second in the men’s B Final with a time of 1:49.62 which was just 0.12 seconds from the top spot. Kat Reburn took eighth in the women’s B Final thanks to a time of 2:08.78.
200 Breast
Connor Orth grabbed second in the men’s B Final through a 2:02.44 finish.
1650 Free
Kate Helminiak earned second place in the women’s B Final thanks to a 17:25.20 time, while Kiera Ceely took fifth with a 17:49.40 and Margaret Eure nabbed sixth with a time of 18:05.62.
Gavin Lanka grabbed fourth place in the men’s B Final with a 16:22.09 time that was only 0.14 seconds ahead of teammate David Armstrong in fifth.
400 Free Relay
The men’s team of Daniel Aizenberg, Max Martino, Joao Felipe Nascimento, and Nathaniel Allen placed fourth in the A Final through a time of 3:01.28.
The group of Armstrong, Matthew Goembel, Reston Bartlett, and George Jekov took fourth in the B Final with a 3:04.73 finish.
On the women’s side, the quartet of Helminiak, Rutta, Debora Xavier, and Rautemberg placed sixth in the A Final with a 3:31.04 time.
The squad of Reburn, Harper Powell, Mo Olhasso, and Brynn Romberger took fifth in the B Final with a finish of 3:36.61.
During the morning time trials, the women’s 200 Free relay team of Rautemberg, Powell, Xavier, and Rutta broke their own one-day-old school record with a time of 1:34.04.
That time bested the previous record of 1:35.64, which was set at the 2017 Panther Invite by Carvajal, Neta Saar, Mikaela Barger, and Savannah Brennan.
In addition, the quartet of Aizenberg, Orth, Fonnotto, and Allen posted a time of 3:14.82 in the 400 Medley relay time trial, which broke the record of 3:14.94 set at the 2019 NCAA Championships by Emanuele Rossi, Dain Rust, Filip Dujmic and Victor Rocha Furtado.
Up Next:
The Panthers will await word on Wednesday as to who qualified for the 2023 NCAA National Championships, which will be held March 8-11 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
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