Miami Takes to the Road for Meet at Florida Gulf Coast
Oct. 16, 2009
Coral Gables, Fla. – The University of Miami swimming & diving team is prepared for its second meet of the year, traveling Saturday, Oct. 17 for a three-way meet against Florida Gulf Coast and Florida State housed at the Lee County/FGCU Aquatics Center on the FGCU campus in Ft. Myers, Fla. The meet is set to begin at 11 a.m.
This weekend, Miami (0-3, 0-2 ACC) will once again be without divers Reuben Ross and Brittany Viola. The loss of Viola leaves valuable points off the scoreboard for the Hurricanes. Last weekend, UM dropped three tight contests in a quad-meet at Georgia Tech–with the absence of Viola truly being felt on the final score sheets.
“Obviously, without diving participating with us this weekend, it’s going to be a huge deficit,” commented UM swimming head coach Christie Shefchunas.
The Hurricanes are making just their second appearance in Ft. Myers in the last three years. In 2007-08, Shefchunas and the `Canes stormed into FGCU collecting a 139-84 win over the Eagles. This weekend, Shefchunas is looking for her team to get better after the opening week against great competition in Atlanta. She sees this as a good meet for her team to get faster and stronger, as well as putting up good times.
“My goal for the meet is for the girls to swim their best times and get stronger and faster for the coming weeks,” stated Shefchunas after Thursday’s afternoon practice. “We had a lot of girls rank highly in the ACC this week for top times, and we want to continue that and add to that for this weekend’s meet.”
Among the swimmers Shefchunas hopes to perform at a higher level this weekend are Roxanne Meyer (Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa) and Christine Anderson (Chattanooga, Tenn.). At Georgia Tech, Meyer competed in the 100- and 200-yard backstroke, also taking part in the 200-yard individual medley. As for Anderson, she took part in the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke, posting a second place time overall in the latter.
“I’m really looking forward to Roxanne [Meyer] stepping up for us this weekend,” remarked Shefchunas. “She didn’t have the best meet last weekend, but it was also her first short course meet as well. She’ll be doing the 400 IM this weekend, and it’s one of her best events. I’m also looking for better performances from Ryann [Labreche], Annika [Saarnak], Sofia [Johansson] and Christine [Anderson]. They’ll all need to step up this weekend if we’re going to be successful.”
For more information on the University of Miami Swimming & Diving team, please log on to www.hurricanesports.com. Once there, you will find up-to-date news, results and information regarding the Hurricanes Swimming & Diving program.
Up Next for the Hurricanes
The Hurricanes will have three weeks off before traveling to Blacksburg, Virginia for another three-way meet with two ACC foes, Duke and Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech will serve as host for the meet on Nov. 7 set to begin at 1 p.m.
Hurricanes Last Time vs. FGCU/FSU
UM won their head-to-head match-up with Florida Gulf Coast, 140-103, but dropped their second match against the Seminoles of FSU, 143-99. The `Canes got solid production from a variety of swimmers, while swimming head coach Annika Saarnak collected a meet-best time in the 100 freestyle after capturing a mark of 52.16 seconds as leadoff in the 400 freestyle relay. The 400 free relay team finished with a time of 3:32.15. Also impressive was Ryann Labreche who finished second overall in the 1000 free with a time of 10:28.35, and Saarnak followed that with a second place time (1:52.24) in the 200 free.
Looking at Florida Gulf Coast
Florida Gulf Coast is off to a quick 2-2 start to the young season after collecting a pair of wins in Atlanta last weekend. FGCU opened up the 2009-10 season with a split-decision, leaving the Georgia Tech Fall Quad Meet with two wins and two losses. FGCU handily defeated FAU (211-89) and Georgia Southern (229-65), but narrowly fell to Georgia Tech (167-133) and lost to the University of Alabama (209.50-90.50).
Sophomore diver Stephanie Young was selected Women’s Diver of the Week by the CCSA last week. Young placed seventh in the 1-meter diving competition with a score of 208.10, and followed that up with an eighth-place finish in the 3-meter diving competition with 208.30 points.
Looking at Florida State
The Florida State women’s and men’s swimming and diving teams started the 2009-2010 season strong against Florida Atlantic University. The women’s team defeated FAU 175-100. The men’s team defeated the Owls 174-101. The women’s team won 10 out of 15 events, while the men’s team claimed victories in 12 of 15 events. In addition to the teams’ first place finishes, FSU claimed the top three spots in every diving event at today’s meet.
C.J. Hendry, Stephanie Sarandos and Shanda Casella led the way for the women’s side with two victories each. Hendry swept the butterfly events with victories in the 100 fly (56.08) and the 200 fly (2:04.08). Sarandos swept the backstroke events with first place finishes in the 100 back (56.93) and the 200 back (2:02.23). Casella was victorious in the 50 free (23.77) and the 100 free (52.01).
UM versus Clemson/Georgia Tech/Western Kentucky
The University of Miami swimming and diving team opened the season at Atlanta on Saturday, finishing the day with a 0-3 record in tight contests against Western Kentucky, Clemson and host Georgia Tech at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center. Overall, the Hurricanes won six events, and eight wins against ACC schools.
Miami was participating against good teams on Saturday, though taking to the pool with no divers in this weekend’s meet. Therefore, valuable points were left off the final score sheet for the Hurricanes. The Hurricanes dropped their three contests to Western Kentucky (178-114), Clemson (162-124) and Georgia Tech (156-130).
Annika Saarnak with a time of 1:51.58. Hannah Kling finished seventh in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 58.19 seconds. UM continued strong swims in the 100-yard breaststroke as Johansson picked up a winning time of 1:04.08 in her collegiate debut. Christine Anderson finished fourth with a time of 1:05.59.
