Meet Results
FIU 1st of 11 - 756 Points
Friday, January 5, 2018 | All Day | North Miami, Fla. | Biscayne Bay Aquatic Center
The Basics
· FIU invited 10 teams in to North Miami to start 2018 and compete in the FIU Sprint Invitational Friday at the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Center. The Panthers finished first in the team scores, putting together of 756, defeating second-place Utah, a Pac-12 program, by 61 points.
· In addition to the regular meet events, the bonus with this invitational came by declaring sprint champions in the four sprint events (Back, Breast, Fly and Free) by having all entrants post a qualifying time, putting the top eight into a three-race event to crown an individual champion. The eight qualifiers swam one race to eliminate four competitors, later followed by a semifinal race of the four fastest to drop two more off for a head-to-head final. Points were awarded in the 50-yard sprint events based off this set of sprints.
· FIU senior Letizia Bertelli (Cremona, Italy) won the 50 Fly, while junior teammate Naomi Ruele (Gaborone, Botswana) took second in the 50 Back. Ruele later swam second in the 100 Back, at 59.20.
· In the non-sprinting events, senior Kyna Pereira (Umkomass, South Africa) won the 500 free and finished second in the 200 Free. Her 1:51.95 was less than a quarter of a second from first in that event. Pereira edged the second-place finisher in the 500 Free by three-hundredths of a second in that longest event of the day.
· The divers got into the scoring, taking the top five spots, with the top four scoring points for the team.
· Freshman Rachel Foord (Melbourne, Australia) scored a 281.95 in the 3m springboard. It was the only score that eclipsed the NCAA Zone diving standard of 280 in that event. Foord has finished first in four of her last five events at the 3m. Senior Rebecca Quesnel (Burlington, Ontario, Canada) was second, at 271.75. That was her best score since late October in the 3m program.
· Other top-three event finishers…
o Freshman Sara Gyertyanffy (Desenzano, Italy) was second in the 100 IM, at 58.80.
o Another freshman, Stephanie Hussey (Beaconsfield, Quebec, Canada), scored second-place points for the Panthers, swimming a time of 58.48, just two tenths away from a top finish.
o Sophomore Carita Luukkanen (Lambere, Finland) was third in the 100 Breast, finishing at 1:06.23, 13 hundredths from second place.
Next Up
FIU will swim dual meets from here until the Conference USA Championships in late February. The Panthers will host their next two duals, starting with Central Connecticut State on January 11. The Thursday afternoon competition begins at 4 p.m.
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