COLUMBIA, Mo. (Nov. 21, 2014) – The FIU swimming and diving team continues to impress at the Mizzou Invite, as it currently sitting in second place with one day to go. The Panthers have 414 team points and lead Nebraska, Illinois, Drury, West Virginia, New Mexico, Northern Colorado and UNLV.
"I feel like we had a stronger day top to bottom today," said Head Coach
Randy Horner. "The ladies relaxed a bit more and had fun. That's the key to swimming fast. It has to be fun, and that's where the team effort comes in."
The day was highlighted by the 200 medley relay team that consisted of freshman
Silvia Scalia, senior
Klara Andersson, freshman
Jennifer Alfani and sophomore
Jennifer Deist, as the group earned a mark of 1:41.78 to top the previous record set in 2013 at the Sun Belt Championships. Another FIU 200 medley relay team consisting of junior
Karin Tomeckova, sophomore
Jessica Chadwick, freshman
Paulina Zelazna and freshman
Ally Mayhew posted a time of 1:42.90, good for third fastest in school history.
Staying with the relay's, FIU's 800 freestyle relay team consisting of Gustafsdottir, freshman
Brittney Fant, freshman
Skye Carey and junior
Karin Tomeckova earned a second place finish time of 7:20.85, the fourth fastest time in school history. Finishing just two spots behind that group was the team of Scalia, Zelazna, Wilde and Chadwick, who earned a time of 7:27.50.
In the 400 IM, Gustafsdottir finished in second place overall, earning a finals time of 4:14.86, which puts her in second in the FIU record books behind
Sonia Perez Arau. Sophomore
Becky Wilde and junior
Jean Madison each posted times that put them in the top 10 in the school record books as well.
Fant was FIU's top swimmer in the 200 freestyle, earning a finals time of 1:49.65, sliding her into fourth place in the school record books. Carey qualified for the B finals with Zelazna. Her time of 1:50.84 now puts her behind Fant for fifth place in the FIU annals. Zelazna's 1:51.76 prelims time ranks her seventh in school history. In the C final, senior
Nadia Farrugia's 1:52.13 finals time ranks ninth.
Looking to re-break her record from Thursday, Scalia swam the 100 backstroke in 53.38 seconds, .08 shy of her record that she set leading off the 400 medley relay on Thursday. Tomeckova finished right behind the Italy native, posting a time of 53.72 seconds, which now puts her in second behind Scalia in the school record books. Alfani also posted a personal best time that puts her third overall in school history, earning a finals mark of 55.76 seconds. Freshman
Julianna Pettinger's 56.71 time puts her eight in program history.
Chadwick led the way for the Panthers in the 100 breaststroke, posting a 1:03.39 time in the A final.
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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 FIU Arena and Ocean Bank Field at FIU Stadium.About FIU: Florida International University is recognized as a Carnegie engaged university. It is a public research university with colleges and schools that offers more than 180 bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida's anchor institutions, FIU contributes $9.8 billion each year to the local economy. 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. FIU has awarded over 200,000 degrees and enrolls more than 54,000 students in two campuses and three centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell, FIU@I-75, and the Miami Beach Urban Studios. FIU also supports artistic and cultural engagement through its three museums: the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, the Wolfsonian-FIU, and the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU. FIU is a member of Conference USA and has over 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu/.
