Swim / Dive Captures Dual Meet Win Over Boston College
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The Miami Hurricanes swimming & diving team won its first dual meet of the spring Saturday afternoon, capturing a 159-140 win over Boston College at the Whitten University Center Pool.
With the Hurricanes missing several key contributors due to injury, a well-balanced performance both on the boards and in the lanes propelled Miami to victory.
After a December training trip to Puerto Rico, head swimming coach Andy Kershaw said he was looking forward to seeing his team’s mindset transition from ‘practice’ to ‘the game’ Saturday – and his team delivered on those expectations.
“That’s the best I’ve seen them at ‘the game,’ and that was gratifying,” Kershaw said. “Sometimes the pressure they feel, I think, takes a little bit away from that, and I was happy to see they reconnected with ‘the game.’ They’ve done the work – today they went out and enjoyed the results.”
The Hurricanes received a boost from a diving contingent that swept the 1-meter and 3-meter. Alicia Blagg earned the top finish in the 1-meter (317.63) ahead of Millie Haffety (310.95) and Mia Vallee (310.20), while Vallee (312.00) won the 3-meter ahead of Jessie Creed (307.80) and Haffety (286.80).
Five different swimmers won events for the Hurricanes in the lanes, including junior Carmen San Nicolas (200-yard freestyle, 1:52.22), freshman Andrea Todorovic (100-yard backstroke, 57.56) and freshman Isabel Traba (200-yard butterfly, 2:02.53).
Sophomore Zorry Mason won the 100-yard breaststroke (1:03.20), the 100-yard butterfly (55.09) and the 200-yard IM (2:04:28).
“We had to have that. We only had 13 people out there. We had to have those contributions,” Kershaw said. “Zorry, every time she dives in, she gets to the first wall and is way ahead. Even though we’re used to seeing it, it certainly can’t be taken for granted.”
One of the most impressive performances of the day came in the 200-yard butterfly, where Traba finished ahead of second-place finisher Una Forsythe (2:06.71) and third-place finisher Chandler Sensibaugh (2:07.56).
“We’ve had some alums here who were part of a group we called ‘U Fly’ – they took a lot of ownership and we’ve been building that back,” Kershaw said. “To go 1-2-3 in the 200 fly was great, with some great swims.”
Forsythe, who Kershaw said enjoyed a “really good” meet, also posted a career-best time in the 100-yard freestyle.
Miami added an exclamation point to the meet with a top time in the 400-yard medley relay. San Nicolas, Traba and junior Sydney Knapp were joined for the first time this season by Manon Viguier, and the Hurricanes’ top entry delivered a finish of 3:26.58.
“Manon is not going to show up on the highlight reel necessarily, but this was her first meet back. It’s been a 10-month injury process, just having her back and having her in that relay was really great to see,” he said. “The 100 free is an event we’re strong at. I was just happy to see those people execute a good 100 free. We work on it a lot, and it was exciting to see the execution of the group of eight people we had competing at the end there.”
The Hurricanes continue their spring schedule on Jan. 18 with a home meet against FGCU. The Senior Day action is set to begin at noon from the Whitten University Pool.
