Liberty Women, Queens Men are Favorites in the ASUN After SMU Men’s Team’s Departure

The Atlantic Sun Conference has become a very transitory conference, with the whole thing being borne from the ashes of the sport-specific CCSA last season, and the whole thing due for a makeover next season with the departure of the leading Liberty women, among many other changes.

But for now, the conference soldiers on with 5 men’s teams and 7 women’s teams.

Women’s Preview

The commonality among the top teams on the women’s side in the ASUN is that it is dominated by relatively-new programs that rose to prominence really quickly.

That is led by the Liberty Flames, which were added as a women’s varsity sport in the 2010-2011 season. The program, which has been led by Jake Shellenberger for the entirety of that history, has won six consecutive conference championships: five in the CCSA before it (essentially) became the ASUN last season, where they added a sixth.

After a 105.5-point margin over Queens last year, they are favored to win again this year after Queens graduated two of their top three scorers in Danielle Melilli (maximum 60 points at last year’s meet) and Sophie Lange (57 points at last year’s meet).

The Flames return their top scorer from last year’s ASUN Championships, Canadian Kamryn Cannings, but she’ll take on a bit of a new flavor this season. The winner of the 200 fly at the ASUN Championships as a freshman last season, Cannings is entered in the 50 free, 100 free, and 100 fly.

She is the top seed in the latter but only the 4th seed in the 50 free and 6th seed in the 100 free.

She has been swimming the 200 fly all season long, including a 1:58.31 at her mid-season invite that would be the top seed in this meet by 2.6 seconds. Shellenberger says that he hopes that removing the 200 fly from her event lineup will leave her fresher for relays, with the potential to break the school record in the 800 free relay. It also gives her a shot at the school record in the 200 free (currently 1:45.6) on the leadoff leg of that relay.

Shellenberger says he doesn’t think the shift gives up much points-wise, though he acknowledges that the 200 fly would probably be an easier win for her, and gives her a shot at some highlight moments.

“After 15 years in the CCSA/ASUN, this is our last dance,” he told SwimSwam. “On to the American next year. We are forever grateful to the CCSA/ASUN for a great run and a phenomenal place to build our program.

“The women (race after the men at the) ASUN meet this year, thus the last event of this year’s meet, and our last ever race in this conference, is the 400 free relay. We think it could be a special one, and not having those 2×200 flys should show up on that last day.”

Last year, Queens was more of the top-heavy team, but this year, Liberty has the top seed in 8 individual swimming events to go along with good depth. But where the two programs really separate is in diving: Queens doesn’t have a diving program, while the Liberty women, for example, finished 1-2-3-6-8-12 on 1-meter and 1-2-3-5-6-8 on 3-meter. Throwing in platform, with a smaller field, that added up to 193 points for Liberty, including a sweep of the events.

While that’s somewhat offset by Queens’ ability then to enter more individual swimmers, but with only 16 scorers per event, that impact is limited.

The top scorer for Liberty this year projects to be senior Sydney Stricklin, who holds top seeds in the 200 IM (1:59.65), 200 free (1:47.38), and 100 free (48.94). That’s another changeup for a Liberty star: she has swum the 100 back at the last two conference championship meets, placing 2nd last season; and the 100 fly as a freshman.

She is having a resurgent season, going best times in all three of those events mid-season this year after receding a bit as a junior last year.

Among the biggest challengers for Stricklin’s dominance is Queens sophomore Abigail Zboran, who is the 2nd seed in the 200 IM. She’s more of a true IM’er, and is also the 2nd seed in the 400 IM (4:19.61) and the 200 fly in Cannings’ absence (2:00.90). She is the defending champion in both IM races.

Liberty has a high-impact newcomer in freshman Aly Bozzutto. She is the top seed in the 100 breaststroke, by 1.3 seconds; the top seed in the 200 breaststroke by 4.6 seconds; and the 3rd seed in the 50 free.

She has had significant time drops in both breaststroke events already at Liberty, knocking seven-tenths off her best in the 100 and almost nine off her best in the 200 breaststroke. Already a highly-regarded prospect in the sprint events, she has been shifted from sort of a short swimmer with abilities across all four strokes to more of a 100/200 breaststroker, with the latter race being a big opportunity for big points in this conference that doesn’t currently have any other 200 breaststrokers in her class.

The third piece of this puzzle is the women’s team from Florida Gulf Coast. Once the dominant force in the conference, the team returns the conference’s #2 freshman, and their top swimmer, from last season Jasmin Kroll.

Kroll won the 200 free (1:46.72), was 2nd in the 500 free (4:50.05), and was 3rd in the 100 free (49.42), all with season-best times, at last year’s ASUN Championships.

This year she enters needing more big drops, as she is only the 12th seed in the 100 free, 12th seed in the 200 free, and 15th seed in the 500 free. But she’s also the best opportunity for the Eagles to climb versus seed.

Other high hopes for FGCU include another big-time newcomer: Jordan Durocher. After spending her freshman season at Louisville, she transferred into FGCU and is now the top seed in the 400 IM and holds #2 seeds in the 200 fly and 200 backstroke. The 200 back is a strong event for the ASUN, and Liberty’s Malia Francis is the top seed by .31 seconds, but Durocher’s lifetime bests in all three events would likely win titles.

The rebuilding Eagles are also expecting big contributions from Izzy Ackley, their best domestic recruit under head coach Dave Rollins’ tenure. The Missouri High School State Record holder in the 100 back is the top seed in that event this week by more than two seconds.

She went a best time of 52.51 at the team’s mid-season invitational in Houston and has progressed in other events as well, which can become a big recruiting tool for head coach Dave Rollins going forward. It took 52.28 to qualify for NCAAs last season, so if she hits her taper she has a shot at returning to the big meet for the Eagles – a program that has done so 11 times in its 17 year history (with swimmers in nine of those seasons).

She leads off a FGCU 200 medley relay that is the fastest in the conference this season, and with seven divers entered, FGCU also has a big diving advantage over Queens.

The meet’s best day, including that 200 medley relay, will be the first day, which also includes the 500 free, 200 IM, and 50 free – all of which project to be huge battles.

UNC-Asheville, which placed 4th at last year’s meet, has dealt with a lot of turmoil this year after Hurricane Helene ripped through their campus and city, displacing the whole student body.

The team returns its top scorer Riley Edmundson from last season, though their #2 scorer Abby Parks is using her graduate transfer year at Nevada.

Still, they return every other scorer from a young team at last year’s conference meet, and have added some impact freshmen in Andie Quisumbing and Alyssa Jackson.

Quisumbing is the 5th seed in the 100 fly (55.17) and Jackson is the 6th seed in the 100 breast (1:03.18), which should improve the Bulldogs’ medley relays even after the loss of the conference’s 3rd-best sprinter in Parks.

That gives the Bulldogs some hope of closing the 44-point gap on FGCU last season, though both programs have improved rosters this year.

North Florida is led by its butterfly group that includes sophomore Kayla Daley and senior Allie Larrimore. Daley has been best times in both butterfly races this season and is the 6th and 7th seed in the 100 and 200, respectively. That doesn’t account for the 200 IM, where she was 8th at ASUN’s last year.

Larrimore, meanwhile, is one spot behind her as the 8th seed in the 200 fly.

Sprinter Slawka Ndubuisi returns to lead Gardner Webb. She was 4th in the 50 free (23.11) and 8th in the 100 free (50.82) at last year’s meet as a freshman and has shown ability to drop big times under the big light.

The addition of freshmen breaststroker Dakota Townley and butterflier Jillian Hawkins give Gardner-Webb some new A-Final potential this season. Their difference can also be seen already in the medley relays, where for example their 400 medley relay seed time is already a second faster than they went at last year’s conference meet.

With Gardner-Webb and North Florida only being separated by 18.5 points at last year’s meet, one swimmer having a good meet could swing the outcome. North Florida has a boost from a freshman as well – Katie Carlos, who is the 7th seed in the 100 back ( 56.60) and 9th seed in the 200 back (2:02.95).

The new roster additions could be the difference-makers for Gardner-Webb as they look to flip the 5th-6th positions this year, though Swimulator still projects a healthy advantage for North Florida of about 81 points on paper going into the meet.

Bellarmine returns all three of its individual scorers Lexi Pierce, Charlotte Tully, and Lily Wolfe from last season, and add some impact freshmen in Lily Epley (17th seed – 50 free) and Micaela Godrey (5th seed – 100 back). That probably won’t be enough to move them up the conference ladder, but Godfrey could be their top scorer this year and give the team some momentum for the future.