MIAMI (Oct. 2, 2015)—The FIU Swimming & Diving team begins its 2015-16 campaign this Saturday when the Panthers compete in this weekend's North Florida Dual Meet.
FIU will square off against host North Florida and Georgia Southern for the team's first competition of the year. Last season FIU defeated North Florida, 64-36, at the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Center.
The Panthers are coming off a historic 2014-15 campaign in which FIU claimed the school's first Conference USA title. Ranked No. 35 in last year's final CollegeSwimming.com rankings, FIU finished the championships with 765 points, 2014 champion Rice came in second with 661.5 points while WKU placed third with 645 points.
During the championships, FIU won eight titles, with seven of them coming in individual events, including junior
Lily Kaufmann and sophomore
Letizia Bertelli, who each had one. For the four-day event, the Panthers broke a total of 12 school records, with eight coming in individual events, while four of them came in relays. Senior
Valerie Inghels broke two records, while Bertelli and junior
Jessica Chadwick each broke one.
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 at the FIU Football 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 Florida's 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/.
