KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (Feb. 21, 2015) – FIU Athletics history was made as the FIU women's swimming and diving team was crowned 2015 Conference USA Champions on Saturday night, marking the school's first-ever C-USA crown. The conference title also gives the Panther swimming and diving team its first ever league championship, as the program started in 2003. FIU finished with 765 points, 2014 champion Rice came in second with 661.5 points while WKU placed third with 645 points.
The Panthers won four titles on the day, as senior
Johanna Gustafsdottir won the 200 breaststroke, freshman
Silvia Scalia won the 200 backstroke, sophomore
Lily Kaufmann took home the platform diving and FIU's 400 freestyle relay team closed the meet victorious. Gustafsdottir, who won four total (three individual, one relay) first place medals this week was named the 2014-15 C-USA Swimmer of the Year. Head Coach
Randy Horner won the league's Coach of the Year award as well.
"I'm proud of our team," said Horner. "They competed like champions all week and earned this title. I'm so happy to bring FIU our first C-USA Championship!"
For the week, FIU won eight titles, with seven of them coming in individual events. Gustafsdottir led the way with three, Scalia had two, while Kaufmann and freshman
Letizia Bertelli each had one. For the four-day event, the Panthers broke a total of 11 school records, with seven coming in individual events, while four of them came in relays. Gustafsdottir set three FIU records, junior
Valerie Inghels broke two records while Bertelli, Scalia and sophomore
Jessica Chadwick each broke one.
On Saturday in the 200 backstroke, Scalia, who improved her personal-best time in the prelims, came back in the finals and trimmed nearly two seconds off her time to earn the first place finish and the school record. Junior
Karin Tomeckova was strong in the finals, clocking in at 1:56 flat to finish second and place her third in program history.
Kaufmann stepped up big for FIU this week, as the Panthers missed their top diver in freshman
Rebecca Quesnel due to injury. Kaufmann posted a 240.00 mark in the preliminaries, which was a career-best for her and the second-highest in program history. Kaufmann picked up the 20 finals points while freshman
Natalia Coronado chipped in with 13 points for her finish.
Gustafsdottir continued her dominance for the week, as she smashed her old school record in the 200 breaststroke finals by posting a time of 2:12.35 to earn the full 20 points for FIU. Senior
Jean Madison also qualified for the A finals and earned 11 points for FIU in the event. Chadwick picked up nine points for the Panthers while freshman
Chase Harris earned six points by posting a career-high 2:18.94.
FIU closed out the meet in style, as Scalia, freshman
Paulina Zelazna, sophomore
Jennifer Deist and Gustafsdottir posted the school record time of 3:18.85 in the 400 freestyle relay to earn the victory. Gustafsdottir finished her fantastic career with a final leg of 48.48 seconds to push the Panthers into first.
In the 200 butterfly, Inghels posted a preliminaries time of 1:58.24, which bests her previous school record at FIU. Inghels went on to be FIU's top finisher in the finals, earning a third place finish to pick up 16 points. Sophomore
Jennifer Alfani cracked the FIU top 10 as she earned a time of 2:04.93 to earn six points for the Panthers. Freshman
Brittney Fant also picked up five points for FIU in the finals.
In the 1650 finals, freshman
Kyna Pereira posted a mark of 16:47.84, making that the second-fastest time in school history. Senior
Courtney VanderSchaaf came up big as well, as she earned 12 points for the Panthers by posting a career-high time of 16:55.60 to put her third in the FIU record books. Also posting a personal record was freshman
Skye Carey, who touched the wall in 17:19.07, placing her seventh in school history.
For the 100 freestyle preliminaries, freshman
Paulina Zelazna posted a then career-best time of 50.37 seconds to move her all the way up to second place in the FIU record books. Deist also posted a personal record in the 100 freestyle prelims as well, finishing in 50.54 seconds which stands in fourth in school history. Bertelli's prelim time was her best as well, swimming it in 50.64 seconds which stands fifth in the FIU annals. In the finals, Zelazna built on her No. 2 time in the record books, trimming it down to 50.31 which now sits .30 behind Gustafsdottir. Zelazna picked up 14 points for the Panthers in the event, while Deist and Bertelli picked up 12 and 11 respectively.
Fans are encouraged to follow the Panthers on Twitter (@FIUSwimDive), Instagram (FIU_SWIM_DIVE) and become a fan on Facebook (Facebook.com/FIUSwimmingAndDiving) for all the latest Swimming and Diving news.
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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/.
