Hurricanes Lap Florida International and Houston

Jan. 10, 2004

Complete Results

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The University of Miami women’s swimming and diving team turned in first place finishes in nine of 13 events to sweep cross-town rival Florida International and Houston on Saturday afternoon at the Norman Whitten Student Union Pool.

Competing in their fourth meet in eight days, Miami overpowered FIU, outscoring the Golden Panthers 168.00 to 62.00 and downed UH 141.00 to 100.00 in the Hurricanes’ last home meet of the season.

Junior Katalin Ferenczi (Pa’ Pa, Hungary) claimed two top spots for the Hurricanes, winning the 200-yard IM with a time of 2:08.15 and touching in first in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:06.47. Ferenczi, along with teammates Martyna Krawczyk (Looz, Poland), Andrea Hughes (Richmond, Va.) and Lindsey Fox (Lake Forest, Ill.), also took the top spot in the 200-yard medley relay.

“This was our most complete meet of the season,” first-year head swim coach Mariusz Podkoscielny said. “I think we really matched up well with both of these teams and we really worked hard to do well. We just have to figure out how to continue to swim hard when stronger teams out power us. Overall, this was an encouraging meet and we hope to pick up the pace with some better times before the BIG EAST cuts.”

Freshman Tara Erwin (Ewing, N.J.) continued to make waves for the Hurricanes, setting a personal best in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:06.72 to finish ahead of the Cougars and Golden Panthers. Erwin also took first place in the 1000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:25.02.

“I was most pleased with Lindsay Knapp. Both she and Andrea Hughes have been fighting injury so it is nice to see them do well,” Podkoscielny said. “Colleen Adkins really did a good job in the 200 breaststroke.”

Senior All-American Emily Spychala (Tampa, Fla.) turned in a score of 273.85 for a first place finish in the 1-meter springboard for the Hurricane diving team. Spychala fell just short of sweeping the diving competition, coming up 1.05 points behind Houston’s Azul Almazan in the 3-meter springboard.

“I thought we competed well today,” head diving coach Randy Ableman said. “I was very happy with Emily’s score in the 1-meter. We did well against Houston, who has one of the best diving programs in the country and think we are on the right track.”

The Miami diving team will return to action on Jan. 15-18, competing at the World Cup Diving Trials in Huntersville, N.C. The UM swim team will hit the lanes again on Jan. 24, traveling to Columbia, S.C. to take on South Carolina.