COLUMBIA, Mo. (Nov. 22, 2014) – The FIU swimming and diving team finished arguably one of its most successful weekends in program history, finishing second at the competitive Mizzou Invite. The Panthers finished Saturday with 586 points, placing ahead of Nebraska and Illinois from the Big Ten and West Virginia from the Big 12. The host school Mizzou finished first.

"We competed well this week," said Head Coach Randy Horner. "We beat some very good teams from the Big 10 and Big 12 and that's a feather in our cap.  We have a lot of work to do still to achieve our goals, but this meet was a great midseason evaluation."

FIU's diving was on point on Saturday night. Freshman Rebecca Quesnel and sophomore Lilly Kaufmann earned a two-four finish respectively in the platform diving event against a very strong field. Quesnel and Kaufmann each qualified for zone diving in the event and Kaufmamm finishes the weekend qualifying for all three diving events. Quesnel posted the second best score in school history in the event, earning a 248.85 in the finals. Kaufmann's best score of the day came in the prelims, where she earned a mark of 232.40, which ranks third in the history of the program.

In the 200 backstroke, freshman Silvia Scalia etched her name in another top 10 list at FIU, moving up to number two all-time in that event, as she posted a prelims time of 1:55.76. She followed that up with a 1:55.55 in the finasl to best her prelims score and put her in a second place finish in the event. Additionally, junior Karin Tomeckova improved her personal best time by over six seconds, moving into fourth in the school record books with a time of 1:57.46. Both Scalia and Tomeckova's times are NCAA B-cuts. Meanwhile, freshman Skye Carey posted a time of 2:04.00, which is sixth in schools history. Freshman Ally Mayhew's prelims time of 2:05.14 is good for seventh in school history and freshman Julianna Pettinger's time of 2:06.21 is 10^th.

Senior Johanna Gustafsdottir posted a personal best time and a school record of 2:14.20 in the 200 breaststroke. Senior Jean Madison was FIU's second best finisher, as she clocked in at 2:19.50 in the prelims and 2:20.08 in the finals.
Junior Valerie Inghels cruised in the 200 butterfly with a mark of 1:58.43 in the preliminaries, smashing the school record by nearly a full second. Inghels finished second overall in the event. Freshman Brittney Fant improved her personal best time by over two seconds, earning a time of 2:03.47 in the prelims to move her up to No. 4 in school history.

Freshman Paulina Zelazna posted a prelims time of 51.18 seconds in the 100 freestyle to lead the Panthers. Her time now ties her for third with senior Klara Andersson in the FIU record books.

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).

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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/.