ATLANTA – Five more gold medals helped FIU increase their lead on the third day of the 2018 Conference USA Swimming and Diving Championships at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center on Friday. FIU won gold medals in the 100 Butterfly, 200 Freestyle, 100 Backstroke, 1-Meter Diving and 400 Medley to push ahead by 205 points as the Panthers hold a 707-502 lead over second place Rice.
FIU's first two wins of the night came in the 100 Butterfly where the Panthers took gold and silver. Senior
Letizia Bertelli won her second individual medal of the meet taking the gold medal with a time of 53.32. Bertelli edged out teammate
Ally Mayhew who took the silver with a 54.25. Both posted NCAA B qualifying marks.
Seniors
Kyna Pereira and
Skye Carey then went 1-2 in the finals of the 200 Freestyle. Pereira's 1:46.72 was her best time of the season as she defended her C-USA title. Carey also posted her top time in the event this season with a 1:47.35. Those marks also were NCAA B qualifying.
Sophomore
Carita Luukkanen earned bronze with a 1:01.01 in the 100 Breaststroke which also was a NCAA B cut qualifying time.
Junior
Naomi Ruele defended her C-USA title in the 100 Backstroke. She won gold for the third straight year posting a 52.54, which put her on the NCAA Invite list again for the NCAA Championships. It was Ruele's second individual gold in as many days as she won the 50 Freestyle Thursday evening.
For the second straight day, FIU swept the Top-5 in diving. In 1-Meter Diving, senior Becca Quesnel claimed gold with a score of 297.80 followed by silver medalist freshman
Rachel Foord (291.40) and bronze medalist sophomore Britanny Haskell (284.30). Sophomore
Brooke Bouchard placed fourth (271.00) and senior
Laura Coronado took fifth (254.95).
FIU wrapped up the third day of competition with a first-place finish in the 400 Medley with the team of Ruele, Bertelli, Mayhew and Luukkanen. Bertelli, Luukkanen, Ruele all won gold for the second straight year as members of the 400 Medley. Their time of 3:36.02 was five seconds faster than second-place Rice.
After three days of action, FIU has won 10 of the 14 total events.
The final day of the C-USA Championships takes place Saturday, beginning at 10:30 a.m. with the prelims of the 200 Backstroke, 100 Freestyle, 200 Breaststroke, 200 Butterfly, Platform Diving and 1650 Freestyle. The last six finals are slated to start at 6 p.m.
Fans are encouraged to follow the Panthers on Twitter (@FIUSwimDive) and become a fan on Facebook (Facebook.com/FIUSwimmingAndDiving) for all the latest Swimming and Diving news. Follow all of FIU's 18 athletic teams on Twitter (@FIUAthletics), Facebook (Facebook.com/FIUSports), YouTube (FIUPanthers), and Instagram (FIUathletics).
The swimming finals are being streamed live on ESPN3 each day of the championship and links for streaming, live stats, C-USA Swimming and Diving Records and championship central can be found below.
Championship_Central
Live Stream (ESPN3):
Day_4_Stream
Live_Results_Link
Schedule_of_Events
Psych_Sheet
Record_Book
Conference USA Swimming and Diving fans are encouraged to follow along with the 2018 edition of the championship meet through a multitude of ways. ESPN3 will be broadcasting each night of the swimming finals live on the web and through the WatchESPN app. Additionally, live scoring and statistics will be available through Atlanta Swimming, for all events.
FOLLOW C-USA FOR UPDATES
Fans can follow C-USA online on Twitter (
@ConferenceUSA) with the hashtag
#CUSASWIM and on Facebook (
facebook.com/ConferenceUSA).
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