MIAMI (Dec. 14, 2013) – The FIU women's swimming and diving team wrapped up its first day at the Sharks Invitational, hosted by Nova Southeastern. The Panthers currently sit in first place out of 10 teams with 291.5 points, heading into day two tomorrow.

"It was good to get the team back into a meet now that finals are over," said head coach Randy Horner. "Most of our girls had some pretty tough doubles today and stayed tough. I expect us to get stronger each day as we get back into the swing of racing."

In the 200 IM, senior Sonia Perez earned a first place finish with a mark of 2:05.51 in the finals. Freshman Jennifer Alfani participated in the event for the first time as well this season, posting her top time in the preliminaries, 2:09.89. Junior Klara Andersson also posted a career-best of 2:11.05 in the 200 IM. 

Alfani was FIU's top finisher in the 50 freestyle, earning a time of 24.17 seconds. Andersson finished right behind Alfani, earning a mark of 24.18 seconds. Junior Courtney Vander Schaaf also earned a time of 23.70 seconds in the preliminaries to qualify for the finals.

In the 1000 freestyle, FIU had a three, four, five finish as Perez took third, junior Johanna Gustafsdottir took fourth and junior Danielle Meara took fifth. Perez's time of 10:13.33 was the best 1000 freestyle time for FIU this season. Meanwhile Gustafsdottir and Meara's times of 10:26.07 and 10:27.79 respectively were personal bests for both.

In the 200 medley relay, FIU's top finishing team consisted of Gustafsdottir, Andersson, Deist and Alfani, as they earned a time of 1:48.45.

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 Google+ (FIU Athletics), Twitter (@FIUAthletics), Facebook (Facebook.com/FIUSports), YouTube (FIUPanthers), and Instagram (FIUathletics).

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About FIU Athletics: FIU Athletics is home to more than 400 student-athletes in 18 different sports. Athletic events are played in seven different venues on FIU's campuses (Modesto A. Maidique and Biscayne Bay), including U.S. Century Bank Arena and Alfonso Field at FIU Stadium.

About FIU: Florida International University is recognized as a Carnegie engaged university. Its colleges and schools offer more than 180 bachelor¹s, master¹s and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida¹s anchor institutions, FIU is Worlds Ahead in its local and global engagement, finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission. FIU has awarded 200,000 degrees and enrolls 50,000 students in two campuses and three centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell and the Miami Beach Urban Studios. FIU is a member of Conference USA and has 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu/.