Hurricanes Use Strong Last Day to Finish Second
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Miami ended its run at the All-Florida Invite hosted by Nova Southeastern Sunday, finishing in second place in its opening competition of the season.
Competing without their diving contingent, the Hurricanes used a final push on their last day at the NSU Aquatic Complex to take second place with 744 points. In third place after the first two days, Miami wound up topping FGCU (692), Nova Southeastern (617) and Keiser (38), while Florida (1,076) won the three-day competition.
“We ended up better than we started, which was great to see,” head swimming coach Andy Kershaw said. “We got a little better every session and ended the meet in second, which was great. It took a full three days to get there, and I’m glad we fought all the way until the end.”
Miami opened the day with the 1650-yard freestyle and had four swimmers competing: senior Cameron Davis (17:25.00), freshman Claire McGinnis (17:32.82), junior Julie Suarez (17:46.08) and sophomore Madison Emery (18:03.54).
Davis was Miami’s top finisher in the event, where she placed fifth overall in a talented field.
“I was happy with our mile. We didn’t win, but just having four people in there was a big step for the program,” Kershaw said. “In the five years prior to this, we’ve only had four different people swim the event total. This year along we had four alone…we had some people do it who are ‘milers,’ and some who are not. That was good.”
Three Hurricanes qualified for the “A” final of the 200 backstroke – sophomore Roxanne Yu (2:04.30) finished fourth, senior Christina Leander (2:05.74) took sixth and sophomore Katie Sickinger (2:09.34) placed eighth.
Miami shined in the 100 free, where Suarez led the way with the top finish. Suarez, who took first in a time of 51.32, was joined by Iliana Oikonomou (third place, 51.97) and sophomore Ianire Casarin (fifth place, 52.36) in the night’s final.
“Julie had another great night for us. She’s a warrior for us. She won the 100 free, which was actually our first event win. Great effort there, and it was good to see Iliana and Ianni in there as well. That was certainly a strong event for us.”
Miami placed three in the “A” final of the 200 breaststroke – freshman Chantal Noe (2:24.50), senior Juli Schippert (2:25.11) and Leander (2:28.35) – and three more in the “A” final of the 200 fly: senior Angela Algee (2:04.86), junior Jessica Hurley (2:09.61) and Davis (2:10.78).
“There was a lot of good execution,” Kershaw said. “It was good to see Angela kind of coming into her own again. I thought the breaststrokers stepped up tonight a little better. It was a good meet overall, and in the end, I think we are better for it.”
The Hurricanes ended the event in style, winning the 400 free relay in dominant fashion. Suarez, Oikonomou, Casarin and Algee finished first with a time of 3:25.97, over four seconds better than the second-place group from Florida.
“I talked to them about our relays and our relay mindset, and it was great to see them respond,” Kershaw said.
Next up for Miami is its home opener against FIU on Sept. 30. The dual meet is set to begin at 6 p.m. at the Whitten University Center Pool, and admission is free.
“This helps us see what we need to work on, and I know they’re anxious to get back to working on those things and getting better,” Kershaw said. “At the end of the week, we’ll set our sights on FIU, which is another chance to practice, get back on the blocks, get better and take another step forward in this process.”
