Canes Wrap Up Day 1 at All-Florida Invite
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The University of Miami swimming team enjoyed a strong opening day at the All-Florida Invite Friday on the Nova Southeastern campus.
Competing without its diving contingent, the Hurricanes ended the first day in third place with 190 points.
“I challenged the team to be even better tomorrow,” head coach Andy Kershaw said. “We put together some pretty good races, as far as strategy and discipline. The focus this early in the season isn’t necessarily on the times or the scoreboard, but I challenged them to be a little faster tomorrow.”
The Hurricanes’ 200 freestyle relay team opened the competition with a fourth-place finish. Sophomore Ianire Casarin, freshman Iliana Oikonomou, junior Julie Suarez and senior Angela Algee delivered an impressive time in their first ever event.
“Julie had a great day and a heck of a night,” Kershaw said. “She showed a lot of resilience and determination. She had to put together four swims in a very short amount of time, and executed all of them really well.”
Suarez, who qualified for the night’s “A” final of the 500 free after a strong showing in preliminaries, improved with a time of 5:03.30 to take seventh in the finals. Freshman Claire McGinnis (5:04.93) and senior Cameron Davis (5:05.50) were the top two finishers in the “B” final of the same event.
“Julie’s 500 free was probably the most impressive,” Kershaw said. “She was faster in the second half than she was in the first half of the race, which shows the confidence and patience she has. Coming off the two injuries she’s had, it’s an early sign that she’s back.”
Senior Christina Leander earned Miami points with a seventh-place finish (2:07.91) in the “A” final of the 200 IM, while sophomore Roxanne Yu (2:10.66) and Algee (2:11.52) scored in the “B” final.
One of the day’s most impressive performances belonged to Oikonomou, who was making her collegiate debut. Competing in the 50 freestyle, the freshman finished with the third-best time in preliminaries (24.03) and took second in the “A” final with a nearly exact time (24.04) in her second attempt.
“It’s exciting to see Iliana compete,” Kershaw said. “You look at the overall times of the meet and they weren’t that fast, and she was able to finish second against some great competition. That was very impressive. Two of the most exciting things are first, that she has a lot of ways she can improve, and second, she’s very coachable.”
Suarez (24.64) and Algee (24.55) also posted strong times in the event.
The Hurricanes closed their first day from the NSU Aquatic Complex with a time of 3:56.34 in the 400 medley relay. Leander, Algee, Oikonomou and senior Julia Schippert teamed up for a sixth-place finish in the event.
