Florida Gulf Coast Swimming Handles Campbell, Central Connecticut State and Liberty

Photo Credit: Florida Gulf Coast Athletics

FORT MYERS – The Florida Gulf Coast swimming and diving team returned from the holiday break and picked up three wins over Liberty, Campbell and Central Connecticut State on Saturday afternoon. Kira Toussaint and Emma Svensson each won two individual events and swam on two winning relays to highlight the Eagles’ meet.

Florida Gulf Coast Press Release

The FGCU women’s & diving team (8-1, 3-0 CCSA) dove in and rolled to three victories on Saturday one of which was a convincing 217-77 result over defending CCSA Conference champion Liberty. Eagles would win 14 of 16 events led by All-Americans Kira Toussaint and Emma Svensson who each took home four victories (two individually, two relays).

“I’m always a little worried when the girls come back after a long break,” head coach Neal Studd said. “They were gone for ten days so you wonder who worked out at home but they all came back in good shape and ready to race. It’s a great day when you beat the defending conference champions and we only lost one event to them. We have never lost a meet to a conference opponent at home so that’s exciting to be able to defend that. That means a lot to the girls and to the alumni, some of which were here today. Everyone knows the story of how Liberty won the conference last year after we made a few mistakes but it was nice today to come out and say we’re ready to try and get it back.”

The 200 yard medley relay kicked off the event and it was the Eagle relay team of Toussaint (Amstelveen, Netherlands/Keizer Karel College), Evita Leter (Paramarino, Suriname/Doral Academy), Svensson (Uppsala, Sweden/Celsiusskolan) and Becky Derogatis (Fort Lauderdale, Fla./Indian River/Cardinal Newman HS) who came away with the victory with a time of 1:42.06. The FGCU team of Sandra Wilk (Lexington, Ky./Paul Laurence Dunbar HS), Katie Armitage (Bushey, United Kingdom/Queens School Bushey), Yee Ching Wong (Hong Kong, China/Dlocesan Girls’ School) and Kristen Julien (San Fernand, Trinidad and Tobago/St. Stephen’s College) touched in third with a time of 1:45.31.

Lani Cabrera (Barbados/St. Ursala’s Secondary School) ran away with the 1000 yard freestyle, touching four seconds ahead of second place finisher, teammate, Nina Schiffer (Dortmund, Germany/SG Dortmund), with a time of 10:22.14. Schiffer would finish in 10:25.40.

In the 200 yard free it was a clean FGCU sweep with Devon Robins (London, United Kingdom/The Grey Coat Hospital) leading the way with a time of 1:53.65. Maggie Holling (West Palm Beach, Fla./John I Leonard) touched in second at 1:55.92 and Cassie Niles (Helotes, Texas/Sandra Day O’Connor) rolled into third place with a touch time of 1:56.12.

Toussaint picked up her first individual win of the day in the 100 yard backstroke with a time of 56.52 and Wilk finished third in 58.49. It was Leter pacing the crowd in the 100 breastroke with a pool record time of 1:03.17. Armitage was close behind in second and the winning continued in the 200 yard Butterfly when Wong touched first in 2:01.89 with Schiffer coming in second and Christi Herfuth (Greenacres, Fla./John I Leonard) finishing third.

Svensson nailed down her first individual victory of the day in the 50 yard free and would impressively make it victories in back-to-back events when she finished first in the 100 yard free as well with a time of 51.12.

On the diving board it was Cayla Collins (Largo, Fla./Osceola HS) running the show picking up victories in the One and Three Meter diving with scores of 232.87 and 250.42, respectively. Mikaila Buening (Franklin, Ind./Franklin Community HS) finished behind Collins in both events with scores of 224.77 and 217.27, respectively.

Toussaint nabbed her second individual victory of the day in the 200 yard back with a touch time of 2:02.49 with her teammate Karen Vilorio (Tegucigalpa, Honduras/Elvel School) finishing third with a time of 2:07.12.

Cabrera continued to show her distance prowess with a victory in the 500 yard free, touching in at 5:04.02 with Schiffer finishing second with a time of 5:04.64. Another victory for Wong came in the 100 yard fly as she was the only Eagle to finish in the top three and she followed that up with a second place finish in the 200 yard IM.

The Eagle team of Julien, Derogatis, Toussaint and Svensson closed out the day for FGCU with a convincing victory in the 200 yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:33.94.

CONFERENCE HONOR QUEENS
The Eagles have earned six CCSA weekly honors, with the most recent being Emma Svensson’s third recognition of the season. FGCU swept the first wave of CCSA weekly honors on Oct. 7 with Svensson named Swimmer of the Week and Collins Diver of the Week following their success at the season-opening All Florida Invite. Svensson continued on to earn another Swimmer of the Week title on Oct. 21 after three first-place touches in FGCU’s 175-120 defeat of Incarnate Word.

UP NEXT
The Eagles will remain home and welcome Nebraska on Saturday, Jan. 10. The meet is set to begin at 10 a.m.

For complete coverage of FGCU women’s swimming and diving, follow us on Twitter @FGCU_WSWIM and visit www.FGCUAthletics.com where full recaps and results will be available at the end of the meet.

Liberty Press Release

The Liberty swimming & diving team opened the year 2015 by going 2-1 at the Florida Gulf Coast Quad Meet, held on Saturday at FGCU Aquatics Complex in Fort Myers, Fla.

The defending CCSA champion Lady Flames downed conference foe Campbell, 196-65, while beating Central Connecticut State by a 195-98 final. The host FGCU Eagles, five-time CCSA champion and 2014 runner-up, went 3-0 on the day, including a 217-77 win over Liberty.

Following Saturday’s action, the Lady Flames are now 8-3 in dual-meet action this season, including 2-1 against CCSA opponents. FGCU advances to 8-1, while Campbell holds a 4-8 record and CCSU is 4-4.

The Lady Flames placed second in both relays, while freshman Prudence Rooker won the 200 individual medley for Liberty’s lone event victory on the day. The Lady Flames also recorded five second-place finishes in individual events.

Rooker touched the wall first in the 200 IM in a season-best 2:05.96. Rooker’s time puts her fifth on the program’s all-time top five list. Sophomore Victoria Tschoke came in fifth, at 2:11.63.

Senior Meghan Babcock pocketed a pair of second-place showings, beginning with the 50 free, where she swam 23.95. Classmate Cori Gary followed in fourth with a time of 24.02, while junior Kendall Hough (24.57) and senior Chloe Thomas (24.81) took sixth and eighth, respectively.

Babcock swam 52.81 to claim second in the 100 free. Gary placed fourth in 53.67, while freshman Rachel Hoeve clocked 53.85 for fifth and Hough’s 54.22 was good for seventh position.

Senior Emily Duff finished as the 100 backstroke runner-up with her 57.52 clocking, while Tschoke placed fourth in 58.59. Hough went 59.50 for seventh.

Duff picked up another second-place finish in the 200 back, swimming 2:03.01. Tschoke’s 2:07.14 was good for fourth place.

Freshman Kendall Hart took second for 100 fly with a 57.03 time. Junior Ranndi Grubbs came in fifth at 59.00, while freshman Danielle Boother swam a season-best 59.40 for seventh.

The Lady Flames’ 200 medley relay of Duff, Rooker, Hart and Babcock claimed second place in 1:44.65.

Liberty’s 200 free relay took second also, as the quartet of Hough, Thomas, Gary and Babcock went 1:35.87.

Junior Kristin VanDeventer claimed third place in both distance events, starting with a 10:28.82 clocking in the 1000 free. Junior Hannah Wakeley came in fifth at 10:40.41, while freshman Sarah Browning took sixth place in 10:41.58.

VanDeventer placed third in the 500 free with a season-best time of 5:06.69. Duff followed in sixth place, swimming 5:10.99 for a season best, and Browning’s 5:15.40 was good for eighth.

Freshman Ashlee Sall swam 1:56.68 for 200 free, placing fourth, while Hoeve claimed fifth place in 1:56.95. Freshman Chelsea Pond’s season-best 1:57.48 earned her eighth place.

Rooker finished fourth in the 100 breaststroke in 1:06.13, one spot ahead of Boothe’s season-best swim of 1:07.95. Freshman Rachel Wasko came in seventh at 1:08.09.

Rooker later earned a fourth-place finish in the 200 breaststroke by swimming 2:24.26.

Wakeley (2:10.76) and Grubbs (2:10.93) placed seventh and eighth, respectively, in the 200 fly.

Liberty will next compete at James Madison on Jan. 17. The Lady Flames and Dukes will square off at noon at Savage Natatorium in Harrisonburg, Va.

Central Connecticut State Press Release

The Central Connecticut women’s swimming and diving team finished third out of four teams in a quad-meet held at Florida Gulf Coast on Saturday afternoon. After a 40-day break in competition as a full team, the Blue Devils squared-off against Florida Gulf Coast, Liberty and Campbell at the FGCU Aquatics Center in Fort Myers, FL. The last time the Blue Devils’ swimming and diving team competed as a full team was on Nov. 23 in the final day of competition at the Frank Elm Invitational at Rutgers University.

In head-to-head scoring between the four teams on Saturday, CCSU fell to FGCU 240-60, Liberty 195-98 and defeated Campbell 176-117. Freshman Maddy Garber led the way for the Blue Devils at the meet as she recorded two top-three finishes, including a first place finish in the 200 yard breaststroke and a third place finish in the 100 yard breaststroke.

Garber, a freshman from Milford, MA, took gold in the 200 yard breaststroke with a time of 2:19.16 and was less than a second from breaking the pool record. She earned her bronze medal in the 100 yard breaststroke with a time of 1:05.79. Garber was the only Blue Devil swimmer to place on the podium at the meet.

Junior Selene Chilton recorded the next best finish for CCSU and took fourth in the 1,000 yard freestyle. She touched the wall with a time of 10:39.10. Senior Karen Novak recorded a fifth place finish for Central in the 500 yard freestyle with a time of 5:10.64.

Senior Helene Neuhaus also had a productive day in the pool. She recorded a sixth place finish in the 200 yard backstroke with a time of 2:07.81 and an eighth place finish in the 100 yard backstroke with a time of 59.56. She also was the lead swimmer on two CCSU relay teams that finished first in its respective events for CCSU.

The 200 yard freestyle relay team that consisted of Neuhaus, freshmen Lauren Rasile and Lauren Czulewicz and sophomore Christine Rasile placed fifth out of 12 relay teams. The team combined to finish with a time of 1:39.27. The other relay team, the 200 yard medley relay team, was comprised of Neuhaus, Garber, sophomore Sabree Thomas and Christine Rasile and recorded a sixth place finish with a time of 1:51.07.

Senior Kaitlyn Dwyer and junior Kaitlyn Beaver led the way for the Blue Devils from the diving board. Dwyer picked up a pair of fourth place finishes from the 1-meter and 3-meter boards. She dove to a score of 206.40 from the 1-meter and 193.87 from the 3-meter. Beaver recorded a third place finish from the 3-meter with a score of 206.10 and took fifth place from the 1-meter board where she scored 201.60 in six dive attempts.

The Blue Devils remain in the state of Florida for their next contest on Jan. 8 where they will face-off in another quad-meet hosted by Florida International University. Joining CCSU and FIU at the meet will be Texas Christian University and Florida Atlantic University. The meet is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.

Campbell Press Release

Campbell posted six individual top-five finishes in Saturday’s quad-meet at Florida Gulf Coast.

Campbell fell 196-65 to Liberty, 176-117 to Central Connecticut State and 247-46 to the host Eagles on the day, the team’s first action since November 22. CU dipped to 4-8 in dual meets in the sweep.

FGCU went 3-0 on the day, also topping Liberty 217-77 and CCSU 240-60. Liberty topped Central Connecticut State 195-98.

Highlighting the Camels’ efforts on the day was freshman Michelle Case, who claimed two of the team’s six top-five finishes, including third in the 200 free with a 53.54 clip. In the 200 butterfly, Camels finished fourth through sixth, with Case (2:07.82), Caroline Clark (2:08.98) and Sarah Jabusch (2:10.20).

Clark, a freshman from Olney, Md., took third in the 100 fly with a 58.38, while Jabusch, a junior from Cary, N.C., placed fourth in the 500 free with a 5:10.36.

Lily Tang finished fifth in the 200 back with a 2:07.47, also posting a 59.37 in the 100 back, finishing sixth.

Campbell will head to UNC Wilmington next week, Jan. 10, finishing up the regular season at James Madison on Jan. 31. The Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association Championship begins on Feb. 18.

Results: Campbell, Central Connecticut State, Liberty vs. Florida Gulf Coast

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