Swimming & Diving Tops FAU 149-72 in First Dual Meet
MIAMI – The Miami Hurricanes swimming & diving team kicked off its dual meet season on a high note Friday afternoon, toppling FAU 149-72 as part of FIU’s Dual-a-Palooza at the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Center.
“We had some very good performances,” head swimming coach Andy Kershaw said. “I thought the team looked really good, as far as their execution of the races, which is what we’re focused on quite a bit at this point.”
Miami swimmers and divers captured first place in every event against FAU, leading to a comfortable margin of victory over the crosstown rival Owls.
The Hurricanes finished Friday night with top overall times in a number of races across the four teams competing in Dual-a-Palooza, including host FIU and Rice.
Miami’s 400 medley relay team of juniors Christina Leander and Julia Schippert, senior My Fridell and sophomore Ksenia Yuskova finished first with a time of 3:50.28, while Leander’s time of 2:01.83 in the 200 backstroke was over a second faster than any other competitor in the field.
Leander, who joined Miami after two seasons at Tennessee and who was an NCAA Championships qualifier during her time with the Volunteers, also won the 50 backstroke in a time of 26.57.
“There’s no doubt she’s going to be a great addition for us the next couple of years,” Kershaw said of Leander. “She’s setting herself up to have a tremendous season.”
Junior Cameron Davis won both of her signature distance events against FAU, earning top finishes in the 500 freestyle (5:00.63) and 1000 freestyle (10:26.24).
Another double-winner was veteran Angela Algee, who finished the 200 IM in 2:08.76 and the 100 butterfly in 55.78 to pick up the first two individual wins of her junior season.
The Hurricanes had four of the top five overall performances in the 1-meter diving event, including a first-place showing from freshman Carolyn Chaney in her first college dual meet (316.55). Kara McCormack came in second (314.00), Wally Layland finished in fourth (292.75) while Marcela Maric captured fifth (287.15).
Multiple Hurricanes posted lifetime-best times Friday, which Kershaw called “unique” at this point in the season. Alejandra Gonzalez’ time in the 200 breast (2:29.96) marked the best of her four-year career, while freshman Sydney Story accomplished the same feat in the same event (2:27.59).
Sophomore Rebeka Repman earned the top finish and the third overall time in the 50 freestyle (24.48) and had the second-fastest time among all swimmers in the 100 freestyle (52.37) to pick up two more individual wins for the Hurricanes.
“It was crucial for Rebeka to step up, and great to see,” Kershaw said. “In general, for our team, it was the right way to start dual meet season.”
Miami closed out the night in impressive fashion, topping FAU with a time of 45.25 in the 100 free relay. The performance, posted by Yuskova, sophomore Julie Suarez, Repman and Algee, was the second-fastest of all teams competing Friday.
“One of the things we always focus on is being strong in our relays, and we actually won both relays in this meet,” Kershaw said. “Those free relays coming in at the end of the meet are always important to us, and we won it tonight. That was good to see.”
Miami will face off against Rice at 10 a.m. Saturday before competing against FIU at 3 p.m. later on in the day.
“We’ve got two tough meets, I know our team is excited about it and I know the other teams are excited about it too,” Kershaw said. “We look forward to it. Being able to rebound after swimming one night to swim the next morning and afternoon, that’s the kind of preparation we need for the end of the year with ACC & NCAA Championships.”
