Florida State Sweeps Florida for First Time

TALLAHASSEE, Florida, November 21. THE Florida State No. 13 women's swimming and diving team made history at the Bobby E. Leach Center tonight as they defeated No. 6 Florida 162-138. It was the first time in school history that FSU has defeated Florida in women's swimming and diving.

"Florida has always been a great program," said head coach Neil Harper. "There has always been for many years a loss on our schedule and I think it was just a great opportunity that we had. Our kids rose to the occasion, I think all of them weren't necessarily firing on all cylinders but they really got excited about the meet and got excited about each other and got behind each other. It was just a great total team effort. The divers just did phenomenal. Every time we looked up on the board they were scoring great scores and winning."

"It was just a great team effort," said Harper. "We never stop believing that we could do it. Every time we won an event it just gave us more belief. It was a great result for us and a great thing for the program. The other thing too is a part from beating a top ten team, beating your instate rivals adds to it and I think the fun thing for these kids is that a lot of our kids know their kids and have been friends on clubs teams, USS teams and high school teams. So it is good for FSU to take a step forward, win more races and get the win."

FSU's women are now 1-31 all-time against Florida while the men are 22-47-1. The No. 10 Florida men defeated FSU's No. 16 men 172-128. The women improved to 5-0 on the season while the men dropped to 2-1.

The Seminoles got off to a fast start winning both the men's and women's 200 medley relay. The women's team of sophomore Christie Raleigh (Toms River, N.J.), senior Lauren Brick (Culpeper, Va.), junior Lauren Sparg (Durban, South Africa) and junior Abbie King (Brunswick, Maine) took first place with a time of 1:40.37. The men's squad of junior Ian Powell (Guernsey, Channel Islands), junior Billy Jamerson (Savannah, Ga.), freshman Corey Swanson (Tampa, Fla.) and senior Alex Kennon (Winter Haven, Fla.) finished first with a time of 1:29.79.

Brick had an outstanding performance in the 100 breast as she finished with an NCAA "A" cut time of 1:01.82. She also won the 200 breast with an NCAA "B" cut time of 2:15.81.

Jamerson won the men's 100 breast with an NCAA "B" cut time of 54.58 and followed the up with another win in the 200 breast, taking the event with an NCAA "B" cut time of 1:59.22.

Florida State was dominant in the 50 and 100 freestyle events, scoring big points in both events. Raleigh led the way for the women as she won the 50 free (23.14) and 100 free (49.94) recording NCAA "B" cut times in both events. Kennon also won both sprint freestyle events for the men. He took first in the the 50 free in 20.70 and 100 free in 45.23.

Senior Steve Roof (Canton, Ohio) picked up a win for the men in the 1000 free with a time of 9:05.84. Junior Jarryd Botha (Worcester, South Africa) registered another Seminole win as he took first place in the 100 back with a time of 48.98.

Senior Romy Altmann (Cape Town, South Africa) picked up a win in the 200 back as she recorded an NCAA "B" cut time of 1:58.78. Altmann also finished second in the 100 back in 56.72.

Sparg has an impressive swim winning the 100 fly with an NCAA "B" cut time of 54.56. She also recorded an NCAA "B" cut time of 2:01.65 as she finished second in the 200 fly.

FSU won all four diving events. For the women freshman Katie Sirounis (Indian Harbor Beach, Fla.) won the 1M (282.45) and freshman Aleia Monden (Mililani, Hawaii) won the 3M (295.50). On the men's side freshman Terrence Horner (Orlando, Fla.) finished first on the 1M (310.80) and junior Alex Tilbrook (Largo, Fla.) finished first on the 3M (338.25).

The women wrapped up the night in similar fashion to the way they started it as the 400 free relay team of Grimes, Sparg, Altmann and Raleigh took first place with a time of 3:23.11. Raleigh, who anchored the leg enter the pool slightly behind and then proceed to run away with the relay which locked up the Seminole win.

The men's 400 free relay team of Botha, Kennon, junior Kyle Young (Oviedo, Fla.) and freshman Jimmy Holway (Gulf Breeze, Fla.) also finished first in the relay with a time of 3:01.78.

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