Hurricanes Top Panthers in Season Opener
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The University of Miami swimming & diving team opened their season Saturday, earning a win over FIU at the Whitten Center Pool.
The Hurricanes surpassed the Panthers, 199-100, in their first dual meet of the season.
“It was a good meet today. Lots of good energy,” head swimming coach Andy Kershaw said. “The things I love about this is it really gives us a chance to evaluate the things we’re doing well and what we can improve on. There’s things to improve on, but we did a lot of things really well.”
One of Miami’s top-point scorer of the day was junior diver and reigning NCAA national champion Mia Vallée, who finished with a top-finish in the 3-meter springboard (308.93) and second-place finish in the 1-meter springboard (307.13). Sophomore diver Emma Gullstrand had a top-finish in the 1-meter springboard (326.03) and second in the 3-meter springboard (297.90).
To begin the meet, Miami secured the first (Kuehne, Vovk, Mason and Hinton) and second (Vanrenterghem, Sundstrand, Carvalho and Spaulding) finishes over FIU in the 200-yard medley relay.
Redshirt junior Adrianna Cera opened individual swimming action with a top-place finish in the 1,000-yard freestyle, finishing in 10:21.09. Captain Aino Otava placed second (10:23.16) behind Cera and freshman Kate Sommerstad placed third (10:27.71) in her collegiate debut.
Freshman Jane Fitzgerald placed second in the 200-yard freestyle (1:52.01), in her collegiate debut.
Captain and veteran Zorry Mason placed first in the 100-yard backstroke (56.39), with Celina Kuehne following closely behind (56.94).
Sophomore Jacey Hinton helped the Hurricanes maintain the lead with top finishes in the 50-yard freestyle (23.26) and 100-yard freestyle (51.01).
In the 100-yard freestyle Fitzgerald(51.99), Spaulding (52.47) and Barr (52.55) all finished consecutively behind Hinton.
In the 200-yard backstroke, Miami had three top finishes with Sarah Sensenbrenner finishing first (2:02.48), Sommerstad (2:04.19) in second and Kuehne finishing third (2:07.29).
Cera added another win in the 500-yard freestyle (5:02.20). Carvalho followed Cera winning the 100-yard butterfly (56.01).
The Hurricanes closed out their opening meet with a win in the 400-yard freestyle relay. Miami’s first-place finish included Fitzgerald, Cera, Spaulding and Hinton with a final time of 3:25.93 to cap off the season-opener.
Miami’s next meet will be the SMU Classic in Dallas, Texas from October 7-8.
“The SMU Classic is certainly very special. It’s also challenging because we have a very limited travel squad, so I’m looking forward to going to that competition, but also have some mixed emotions, since we’re going to have some people here in Miami. It’s always great to get a chance to get on the bus and race,” Kershaw said.
