IRVING, Texas (November 9, 2017) -- Following its dominant performance last weekend against Illinois, FIU earned both a Co-Swimmer of the Week (Naomi Ruele) and the Diver of the Week (Rachel Foord) by Conference USA, the league announced this week. 
 
Junior Naomi Ruele (Gaborone, Botswana) won all three individual events and swam a leg of four winning relay events as FIU defeated Illinois by nearly 100 points in a two-day home meet last weekend at the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Center in North Miami. Among her accomplishments, she swam the anchor leg for FIU in the 400 Free Relay to end the Friday session, with a 3:47.43, the fastest time by a Conference USA squad this season. She is coming off of qualifying for three relay events for FIU in the NCAA Championships last season. 
 
Freshman Rachel Foord (Melbourne, Australia) took first in the 3-meter diving event (283.12) in the second day of the two-day home dual meet with Illinois over the weekend. During Friday's opening session, the freshman was second (273.67) to senior teammate Rebecca Quesnel by finishing less than three points behind her (276.52) to start the day. Both scores met the NCAA Zone-qualifying standard. The reigning C-USA Diver of the Week maintains the top score in the conference in the 3-meter springboard (324.20) to this point of the season, and the second-best score (277.60) to Quesnel in the 1-meter springboard.
 
The Panthers will compete in the prestigious Purdue Invite, starting next Thursday thru Saturday, to complete the semester's pre-exams schedule.
                                                                                                                                                                                    
#######
 
About FIU Athletics: FIU Athletics is home to more than 400 student-athletes in 18 different sports. Athletic events are played in eight different venues on FIU's campuses (Modesto A. Maidique and Biscayne Bay), including Lime Court at FIU Arena and Riccardo Silva Stadium.
 
About FIU: Florida International University is classified by Carnegie as a "R1: Doctoral Universities - Highest Research Activity" and recognized as a Carnegie Community Engaged university. It is a public research university with colleges and schools that offers bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs in fields such as business, engineering, computer science, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida's anchor institutions, FIU contributes almost $9 billion each year to the local economy and is ranked second in Florida in Forbes Magazine's "America's Best Employers" list. FIU graduates are consistently among the highest paid college graduates in Florida and are among the leaders of public and private organizations throughout South Florida. FIU is Worlds Ahead in finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission with multiple state-of-the-art research facilities including the Wall of Wind Research and Testing Facility, FIU's Medina Aquarius Program and the Advanced Materials Engineering Research Institute.  FIU has awarded more than 220,000 degrees and enrolls more than 54,000 students in two campuses and centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell, FIU@I-75, the Miami Beach Urban Studios, and Tianjin, China. FIU also supports artistic and cultural engagement through its three museums: Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, the Wolfsonian-FIU, and the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU. FIU is a member of Conference USA and more than 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu/.