MIAMI – The Miami Hurricanes capped off their dual meet season in style Saturday afternoon, toppling FIU 205-95 at the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Center in the team’s final dual meet of the season.
Just a year after dropping its head-to-head matchup with FIU by a single point, Miami earned its seventh dual meet win of the season with ease against a talented Panthers team. The seven wins are the most for Miami in a single season since 2010-11.
Miami started the afternoon by posting the top time in the 200 medley relay, as juniors Christina Leander, Julia Schippert, Angela Algee and senior captain My Fridell finished in a first-place time of 1:43.86.
“It was a great meet today. One of the things I thought was great was it was a complete meet from top to bottom,” head swimming coach Andy Kershaw said. “They really stepped up and competed well as a team. I know they were very fired up to do it right out of the gates, and that’s what they did – starting with the medley relay.”
Junior Cameron Davis followed with a second-place finish in the 1000 freestyle (10:11.76), and freshman Ianire Casarin – making her career debut with the Hurricanes – then captured her first win as a collegian with a time of 1:48.12 in the 200 freestyle.
Sophomores Ksenia Yuskova (1:48.51) and Julie Suarez (1:51.32) took second and third in the 200 free.
Miami would not slow down, taking the top two finishes in the next three events: the 100 backstroke, the 100 breaststroke and the 200 fly.
“I think it’s all a result of what I talked about leading in to the meet, which was putting a focus on the entirety of the process,” Kershaw said. “From what we’re doing in the pool to also, more importantly what we’re doing out of the pool. I talk to them a lot about being processed-focused and results-driven, and they’ve been driven to get results.”
Leander (55.00) and freshman Roxanne Yu (56.06) earned Miami the top two point totals in the 100 back, while Suarez (1:05.25) and freshman Sydney Story (1:06.59) continued the trend in the 100 breast.
Junior Angela Algee (2:00.18) and sophomore Jessica Hurley (2:03.28) gave the Hurricanes a comfortable lead by taking the top two spots in the 200 fly.
Miami had three of the top four finishes in the 50 free, with Yuskova (23.85, second), Fridell (24.00) and Casarin (24.21) all earning points.
“I think the good results were largely due to their commitment to each other, and to the process – the nutrition, the hydration, the sleep – things like that out of the pool,” Kershaw said. “They’re a very determined group.”
The Hurricanes’ freshmen diving duo of C.C. Chaney and Marcela Maric delivered among the most dominant performances of the day. The two divers flipped the top spots in the 1-meter and 3-meter events, with Chaney taking first 1-meter (293.25) and second in the 3-meter (310.55).
Maric took first in the 3-meter (341.55) and second in the 1-meter (288.95).
The Hurricanes then posted the top three times in the 100 freestyle, with Suarez (50.59), Casarin (50.84) and Fridell (51.44) continuing to extend Miami’s lead in the matchup with the Panthers. The individual win was the second of the meet for Suarez, who also earned two victories last time out in a double dual meet with host FAU and FGCU.
“It was great to see Ianire get a chance to race today. She started out with a great swim in the 100 free, and Angela again finished strong getting two wins,” Kershaw said.
Miami took the top three spots in the 200 backstroke, with Leander (2:00.50), Yu (2:01.07) and freshman Katie Sickinger (2:06.39) sweeping the major points. Schippert then earned first in the 200 breast (2:18.95), and Yuskova (4:56.69) took second in the 500 free. Davis (4:59.85) and Suarez (5:05.05) took third and fourth, respectively.
“It was great to see our two seniors go out with a win,” he said. “My had some great performances. She had a tough lineup today with the events she had to swim, but finished it off with a great time in the 100 fly.”
The Hurricanes capped the meet by taking the top two finishes in the 100 fly and the top three finishes in the 200 IM.
“I thought a lot of our success today was based around our depth. A lot of our swimmers who may have finished fourth or fifth earlier in the year stepped up to finish second or third,” Kershaw said. “I thought that was big.”