FT. PIERCE, Fla. (November 23, 2014) - Indian River State College's men's and women's swimming & diving teams traveled to Atlanta, Ga., this past weekend to compete in the Georgia Tech Swimming and Diving Invitational.

IRSC’s athletes had some very good performances against some of the top swimming and diving colleges from around the country and came away with and 11th place finish out of 17 on the women’s side, and fourth place (out of nine) on the men’s side.

Leading the way with overall victory for both men and women was the University of Florida.

Day 1 of competition saw IRSC competing in the 200 medley relay with women placing 12th and the men placing third. Top individual scorers were Matt Nielsen in the 500 free (30th), in the 200 IM Christina Loh was 16th and for the men, Shota Nakano (seventh), Quinn Poti (eighth), Rawley Davis (tenth), Brandon Thoman (14th), Serginni Marten (18th). In the 50 freestyle, Tayla Lovemore (19th), Danny Hartley (12th), Craig Emslie (16th), Adam Wise (23rd), and Erle Craven (29th). For the 3m diving Ashley Wright placed 13th overall, while the men competed in the 1m event with Zach Duval placing 14th, Sam Hunt, 16th, David Zarb, 18th, Robert Morgan, 19th, and Gavn Russ, 22nd. In the final event of the evening, IRSC’s 400 medley relays placed eighth for the women and fourth for the men.

Day 2 of competition started off with the women’s 200 medley relay taking the seventh spot, while the men’s team again took in the fourth place finish. Individual scorers were Quinn Poti (14th) and Brandon Thoman (20th) in the 400 IM. For the 100 butterfly, scorers included Tayla Lovemore (21st), Shota Nakano (seventh), Danny Hartley (tenth), Rawley Davis (17th), and Brandon Thoman (19th).  In the 200 freestyle, Adam Wise took 16th, Quinn Poti 17th, and Bradley Adan 23rd.

IRSC’s freshman, Christina Loh, would be the highlight of the day when she broke the NJCAA national record in the women’s 100 breaststroke during the prelims with a time of 1:03.30. Later that evening she would place third overall with a time of 1:03.62. Other scorers in the breaststroke included Lauren Grinnell (22nd), and for the men Craig Emslie (third), Erle Craven (eighth), Serginni Marten (ninth), and Shota Nakano (12th). In the final individual swimming event Lindsay Lee earned 15th in the 100 backstroke, while Danny Hartley placed 13th for the men.

The divers also had a good showing with Ashley wright placing 23rd in the 1m event, while in the men’s 1m, David Zarb placed 13th, Robert Morgan 16th, Zach Duval 18th, Sam Hunt 21st, and Gavn Russ 22nd.

IRSC ended the night with the 800 freestyle relay teams placing 11th for the women, and third for the men.

On the final day of competition, River swimmers competed in the 1650 freestyle with Hannah Lynch taking 21st, and Sarah Neely taking 23rd. For the men, Ronald Santos placed 18th, while Matt Nielsen placed 20th. Other individual scorers were Rebecca Halfast (16th), and Lindsay Lee (29th) for the women’s 200 backstroke, and for the men Danny Hartley took 15th while Quinn Poti took the 20th spot. Also competing was Craig Emslie (seventh), Adam Wise (14th), and Bradley Adan (28th) in the 100 freestyle. The 200 breaststroke saw Christina Loh come very close to the national record placing third, and Lauren Grinnell placing 25th. For the men it was Erle Craven (seventh), Shota Nakano (eighth), and Serginni Marten (tenth). In the final individual event of the meet, the 200 butterfly, Tayla Lovemore took 14th for the women, while the men had Rawley Davis (10th), Brandon Thoman (15th), Juan Olano (22nd), and Connor Joossens (23rd).

The final event of the competition had IRSC’s swimmers compete in the 400 freestyle relay earning 11th for the women and 4th for the men.

IRSC will next compete against Union at 2 p.m., December 10.