The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

Bahamian student athletes have excelled early in the NCAA Division I aquatics season.

Izaak Bastian, now in his sophomore year with the No.15 ranked Florida State Seminoles, continues to emerge as a standout for the nationally ranked side.

The Seminoles men defeated the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 160-140 over the weekend and improved to 3-1 on the season - 2-1 in the ACC.

Bastian won the 100 breaststroke in a time of 55.49 seconds. "We had a good day with two road wins against a very good ACC opponent," FSU head coach Neal Studd said. "We mixed up events a little today to see some of our team in different races. It was a good day."

The Seminoles won a combined 21 events, including all four diving events.

As a freshman last season, Bastian was a part of the 200 medley relay team that captured All-America honours at the NCAA Championships behind a seventh place finish. He also competed in the 400 medley relay at NCAAs. He won bronze at the ACC Championships in the 200 medley relay in school record-timing of 1:23.63.

Luke-Kennedy Thompson has had a similar impact for the Howard University Bison in his freshman season.

Howard defeated Mary Washington (136-126) over the weekend and Thompson took first place in the 1,000 freestyle in a time of 10:07.28.

In the season opener, Thompson claimed two individual first place finishes in a 167.5-126.5 win over VMI. He took first-place in the 200 Freestyle (1:46.49) and 500 Freestyle (4:50.68).

In week two's 166-85 win over Chowan, Thompson teamed with Kegan Ford, Miles Simon, and Nikolas Sylvester to finish in first place in the 200 Free Relay. Davante Carey has also made an immediate impact in his freshman season with the McKendree University Bearcats in NCAA Division II.

McKendree finished second overall at the Lindenwood Invite over the weekend against Lindenwood University, University of Indianapolis, Drury University, Missouri S&T, and Delta State University.

Carey, along with his 200 Medley Relay teammates -John Heaphy, Gregg Lichinsky and Alexander Skinner - set a new school record with a time of 1:30.27.

Carey joined the Bearcats after an active summer where he competed in the 2019 PanAm Games in Lima, Peru and the 2019 FINA Junior Worlds Swim Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

He opened season in the Bearcats' 182-112 win over Division-I Southern Illinois University Carbondale. They took first place in the 400 yard medley relay alongside Heaphy, Skinner and Matija Pucarevic with a time of 3:21.86.

In their second home meet of the season, they defeated the University of Evansville 188-98.

Carey, Pucarevic, Skinner and Matthey Meals won the 400 Medley Relay in a time of 3:23.64.

The next week, they defeated Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) member Truman State University 178-80.

In the 200 Medley Relay, Carey, Meals, Pucarevic and Skinner took first place in 1:32.97.