St. Petersburg’s Romano, Tampa’s Nauta shine at US swim nationals

Posted Aug 7, 2011 by Bill Ward

Updated Aug 7, 2011 at 01:10 AM

Saturday in Palo Alto, Calif., St. Petersburg Northeast High product Megan Romano and former Tampa Prep standout Chelsea Nauta completed an outstanding week at the ConocoPhillips USA Swimming National Championships at Stanford University’s Avery Aquatic Center.

Romano, a University of Georgia sophomore, earned sixth place in the women’s 100-meter freestyle in 54.80 seconds while Nauta, who recently finished hr senior season for UGA, took 37th in the event 56.56.

Romano was also fourth in both the 100 and 200 backstrokes (with a personal best time of 1.00.87 in the 100 back), sixth in the 200 free (1.59.56), anchored the Athens Bulldogs Swim Club to second place in the 400 free relay (3:41.80) and, joined by Nauta, Morgan Scroggy, and Shannon Vreeland, eclipsed the meet record in the women’s 800 free relay with a time of 7:58.14. That was more than a nine second improvement over the 20-year-old record.

Nauta’s top individual finish was a fourth in the 200 free in 2:00.27. She was also part of the second-place 400 free relay team with Romano and 16th in the 400 free.

Romano and Nauta’s individual efforts helped the Athens Bulldogs Swim Club finish third in the final women’s team standings.

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