CORAL GABLES, Fla. — The University of Miami swimming team put together an impressive performance against Boston College on Senior Day at the Whitten Pool Friday afternoon.
The Hurricanes, who celebrated the careers of four deserving seniors prior to their matchup with the Eagles, carry a 134-70 lead over the Eagles into Saturday, when Miami faces off against Boston College and FAU in a tri-meet at the Whitten Pool at 9:30 a.m.
Swimmers Katie Sickinger, Sydney Story and Roxanne Yu, along with diver Briadam Herrera, were honored during pre-meet festivities on the pool deck.
“It was special, and what I told the team was that if we go out and we do what the seniors do, we’re going to do a good job,” head swimming coach Andy Kershaw said. “We saw that from our seniors today. They work, and the work leads them to be better. They don’t let the work hold them back. They don’t see that as an obstacle, they see that as something to stand on.”
Sickinger’s career-best time in the 200-yard butterfly (2:08.47) and Yu’s first-place time in the 200-yard backstroke (2:01.08) were among the top individual performances, while Story swam the second leg of Miami’s winning 200 free relay team (1:35.74) to close the race.
Kershaw said that while Miami performed well in some facets, the Hurricanes will need better race execution if they want to reach higher levels of success moving forward.
“This is an important step to get our team to realize that there is still business to take care of,” Kershaw said. “Boston College and us were here today, giving everything we’ve got, but there are a lot of teams across the country that are doing the same thing. We have to not only be looking internally, but looking all across the country.”
After a win by the Hurricanes in the 400 medley relay, junior Claire McGinnis kept early momentum rolling as the top finisher in the 1000-yard freestyle (10:34.48).
Miami then picked up a 1-2 finish in the 200-yard freestyle, with freshman Maria Artigas Fernandez (1:54.19) and sophomore Sydney Knapp (1:54.71) taking the top two places in the event. The Hurricanes earned back-to-back wins from freshmen, with Coco Hull (23.96) winning the 50-yard freestyle and Zorry Mason (56.06) taking top honors in the 100-yard IM.
Junior Manon Viguier, competing in her home waters for the first time this season, delivered a blazing time of 50.84 in the 100-yard freestyle to take the top finish.
“Manon’s 100 free, just to get her back in our pool, she was on a mission when she dove in,” Kershaw said. “That was really impressive. That’s the race that sticks out the most, for me.”
The McGinnis sisters delivered the top-two performances in the 500-yard freestyle, with Claire (5:09.32) edging out sister Grace (5:09.33) by one one-hundredth of a second for a performance that Kershaw called “very fun to watch.”
Artigas Fernandez picked up her second win Friday in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:23.32) before Story, along with Mason, Hull and Knapp, delivered the afternoon’s top showing in the 200 freestyle relay (1:35.74) to end the afternoon on a high note.
Kershaw said the Hurricanes are excited to return to the pool Saturday for their tri-meet with BC and FAU at 9:30 a.m.
“They raced well, but I would like to see them execute some of the things that we’ve been working on a little better,” Kershaw said. “That’s good, because we have another day tomorrow that we can work on that.”