Florida Southern College’s Jamaican Junior Nico Campbell continues to show progress in his swimming career by winning two relay medals so far at the NCAA Division II championships underway at the Greensboro Aquatic Center in North Carolina. The meet which started on Wed March 14 saw him bettering his 2017 performances.
Nico Campbell Photo courtesy of fscmocs.com
In the 800 yard freestyle relay, which was swum yesterday, saw The Moccasins’ team of Matthew Holmes 1:36.75,Campbell 1:37.37,Luka Matacin 1:38.65 and Luka Planinc 1:36.92 stopped the clock in 6:29.69 to win the Silver .This is a big movement from 2017 when the team finished seventh in 6:33.85.Nico’s split then was 1:38.78.Queens won the event in 6:25.42
In the 200 yard freestyle relay on Thursday Florida Southern earned their second consecutive Silver medal in the event.The team of Noah Franz 20.46,Campbell 19.92,Matacin 19.77 and Talor Hamilton 20.05 stopping the clock in 1:20.20.In 2017 Nico was timed in 20.19. The Gold went to Oklahoma Baptist in 1:18.11 . The second leg swimmer on that team was Chad Brandon whose parents are Jamaican.
Nico Campbell
In the 200 yard freestyle he would better his 2017 showing of 1:38.39 twice. In the heats when he swam 1:38.09 (split time 47.60) and when he registered 1:38.13 when he placed fourth in the B final.
Campbell’s 200 yard medley relay team placed second in the B final with a time of 1:28.17.Nico contributed an anchor leg of 20.13.
Nico Campbell Silver medallist 200 yard freestyle Photo courtesy of Jim Hogue
Jamaica was represented by Florida Southern College sophomore Nico Campbell and Florida Institute of Technology freshman Bryce Butler at the 2017 Sunshine State Conference Championships in Orlando Florida from February 16 to 19.
Campbell would come away with 5 medals at his 2nd Conference Championships and all personal bests in his individual events.
The 200 yard freestyle saw the former national record holder in the 200 metre freestyle winning Silver. He went from a season and personal best of 1:39.08 to new personal best of 1:38.24 (split time 48.66). The final saw him shaving off .01 of a second to record a time of 1:38.23 to finish just behind winner Franco Lupoli of Nova Southeastern University 1:37.91.
800 yard freestyle Silver medallists from left to right Luka Planic,Matthew Holmes,Noah Franz and Nico Campbell Photo courtesy of Jim Hogue
He would defeat Lupoli in the 800 yard freestyle relay .Both men would lead off their respective A teams. In that opening stanza it would be Nico who would get his hand to the wall first and have the fastest opening leg 1:38.20 to 1:38.22, yet another personal best. Nova would however win the event in 6:30.97. Nico’s teammates Noah Franz 1:38.56, Matthew Holmes 1:37.25 and Luka Planic 1:38.65 contributed to Silver medal winning effort of 6:33.55.
The 200 yard freestyle relay team of Diego Gimenez 20.44, Marco Palacios 19.94, Franz 20.10 and Campbell 20.09 helped the Moccasins to the Silver medal in a time of 1:20.57.
There would be yet another Silver medal in the 200 yard medley relay. This time the team composition would be Palacios backstroke 21.83, Sean Kim 25.43, Gimenez butterfly 21.35 and Campbell freestyle 20.16. The clock would register an overall team effort of 1:28.82.
400 yard freestyle relay Bronze medallists from left to right Diego Gimenez ,Nico Campbell, Noah Franz and Matthew Holmes Photo coourtesy of Jim Hogue
The 400 yard freestyle relay team of Franz 44.56,Campbell 44.58,Holmes 45.07 and Gimenez 43.48 accounted for the Bronze medal in the event with a total team time of 2:57.69.
In the 100 yard freestyle ,the Exercise Science Major lowered both his season best of 45.48 and personal record of 45.28 in the morning heats to 45.03 (split time 21.66). That earned him a second swim in the B final .In that race he was able to record his first sub 45 time with a 3rd place finish of 44.96 (split time 21.44).
In the 50 yard freestyle Campbell recorded a personal best of 20.72 in the heats. That bettered his season best of 20.84. It also beat personal record of 20.81 that he registered when he placed 17th at the 2016 edition of the Conference Championships. That time put him in the B final where he was again faster. He finished 5th in a time of 20.59 well under the NCAA Division II B time of 20.83.
Nico spoke to draftingthecaribbean about his performances at the Conference Championships
“Overall it was a good meet for me. I made finals in every event I swam, which scored points for the team, and I achieved best times in all my events, which was one of my meet goals. I knew there was a chance to be in the top 5 in the 200 freestyle but I didn’t think I would finish second by a close amount. I am now part of the Florida Southern Mocs national team that will be traveling to Birmingham, Alabama for the Division II NCAA championships to be held from March 8-11”.
CARIFTA region teammates at FIT from left to right Jamaican Bryce Butler and The Bahamas Drew Bastian
His countryman and teammate on the 2015 CARIFTA team that competed in Barbados, Bryce Butler competed in his Conference for the FIT Panthers. Swimming exhibition only Butler, a Biomedical Engineering student recorded personal best times in the in 50 yard freestyle 23.06, 100 yard butterfly 56.80 and 200 yard breaststroke 2:21.73. In the 100 yard breaststroke he was just off his personal best of 1:01.72 with a 1:02.01 clocking.When Butler spoke to draftingthecaribbean he had the following thoughts
“Coming off an injury of fractured toes I didn’t expect to do best times..I’m looking forward to next year where I hope to post better times”.
The Moccasins finished 2nd in the men’s competition with 841 points. The Panthers were 4th with 603 points.
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