FGCU Quad Meet (Liberty, Tulane, Illinois State)
- January 4, 2020
- Fort Myers, Florida
- Results
Courtesy: Liberty Athletics
Liberty capped off its 10th annual Florida training trip by sweeping through a quad meet hosted by FGCU on Saturday at FGCU Aquatics Complex.
The Lady Flames (11-3) defeated the host Eagles and Tulane by matching 131-93 scores, while topping Illinois State 188-30. FGCU and Tulane tied in their dual-meet score, 112-112, while both the Eagles and Green Wave defeated Illinois State.
Liberty Event Winners
• 200 medley relay – 1:44.71 (Payton Keiner, Mikayla Herich, Brittany Weiss, Colleen Donlin)
• Fr. Eva Suggs – 200 freestyle (1:51.79)
• Jr. Lindsey Cohee – 100 butterfly (56.01)
• Jr. Payton Keiner – 100 backstroke (55.13)
• 400 freestyle relay – 3:30.98 (Payton Keiner, Hannah Baker, Colleen Donlin, Mikayla Herich)
Notable
• Liberty won five events, including both relays, which Tulane claimed four individual-event victories and FGCU earned three event wins.
• The Lady Flames are 4-0 against CCSA opponents this season and have won their last 19 CCSA dual meets in a row since a 137-125 loss at FGCU on Jan. 7, 2017.
• FGCU leads the all-time series 6-2 over Liberty. However, the Lady Flames have won each of the last two dual-meet matchups.
• Keiner’s 25.81 leadoff to the 200 medley relay was the fastest 50 backstroke by a Lady Flame this season.
• Keiner (100 back), Cohee (100 fly) and Suggs (200 free) all won their respective events for the third time this season.
• Liberty is 34-3 in its last 37 dual meets overall.
• The Lady Flames have clinched their fourth straight 10-win season, earning 10 or more victories in a single season for the seventh time in program history.
• Yesterday, Liberty went 2-1 in a quad meet hosted by No. 7 Florida, defeating Vanderbilt and North Florida and falling to the host Gators.
• This is the first time since Oct. 9-10, 2015, that Liberty has competed in away meets in separate cities on back-to-back days. That year, the Lady Flames competed at TCU on Oct. 9 before heading to North Texas for a meet on Oct. 10.
Up Next
Liberty will send its divers to the Navy Diving Invite, held Jan. 17-19 in Annapolis, Md. The Lady Flames’ final regular-season meet will be the TYR Senior Celebration, as Liberty will host Campbell and James Madison on Jan. 25.
Courtesy: FGCU Athletics
FORT MYERS, Fla. – In its first meet of 2020, the FGCU swimming & diving team (7-5-1, 4-1 CCSA) finished with a 1-1-1 mark against Illinois State, Tulane and Liberty on Saturday at the FGCU Aquatics Complex. The Eagles downed the Red Birds 183-35, earned a 112-112 draw against Tulane and were defeated by CCSA rival Liberty by a score of 131-93.
“There were a lot of good things that happened today and it was great to see Joely (Merriman) get a chance to compete for the first time for us,” head coach Dave Rollins said. “The girls were really tough today. Petra (Halmai) was as competitive as she has been throughout the whole season and it’s always fun watching her compete. I never know what to expect coming off the holidays, but it was great to see everyone back and racing again. We have plenty of time before CCSAs when we will see Liberty again.”
In the first event of the afternoon, the Green and Blue quartet of freshman Julia Rodriguez, junior Petra Halmai, senior Cassidy Fry and sophomore Wiktoria Czarnecka earned a second-place finish in the 200-yard medley relay. The team beat out third-place Tulane (1-5, 0-0 American) by almost a full second.
Halmai (Dombovar, Hungary/Lanczos Komel Secondari Grammar School) then found individual success in the 400 IM, as she picked up a second-place finish. She also earned crucial points for the Eagles in the 100-yard butterfly (second palce) and the 100 Breast (second place).
Czarnecka (Lublin, Poland/Liceum nr 10 w Lublinie) earned the team’s only first-place finish of the day in a swimming event as she took home the 50 Free. She bested Liberty (7-2, 3-0 CCSA) senior Colleen Donlin by a little over 0.3 seconds en route to the win. The sophomore also scored points for FGCU in the 100 Free, where her time of 53.35 was good for a fourth-place finish.
The team also picked up early points in the 3m dive, as a trio of Eagle freshmen scored in the event. Reese Wakefield earned her fourth title on the 3m board with a score of 264.00. Delaney Nelson and Isabeau Keene rounded out the scoring with third and fourth place finishes to add 13 points to the team’s total.
While Halmai paced the Eagles in the 100 Fly, she was followed closely by Fry (Oakwood, Ohio/Oakwood HS) and Rodriguez (Gainesville, Fla./Buchholz HS) who finished third and fourth, respectively. Rodriguez earned her highest individual finish of the day in the 100-yard backstroke, where she touched the wall second.
Seniors Elizabeth White and Emily Glinecke finished within 0.3 seconds of each other in the 100 Breast. White’s (Fort Myers, Fla./Riverdale HS) time of 1:07.09 earned her a fifth-place finish. She and Halmai combined for five points, while Glinecke (Pottstown, Pa./Pottsgrove HS) finished just outside of the scoring cut-off in sixth place.
In the last swimming event of the day, the team of Czarnecka, Fry, sophomore Joely Merriman (Shawnee Mission, Kan./Arizona State) and freshman Kaja Reinhardt (Herdecke, Germany/Helene-Lange-Gymnasium Dortmund) finished fourth in the 400-yard freestyle relay. While Liberty had secured its win over FGCU at this point, Tulane only held a slight edge over the home team.
The final score of the meet was determined by the 1m diving event. Luckily for the Eagles, the trio of Wakefield (Guelph, Ontario, Canada/Bishop Macdonelle CHS), Nelson (Cincinnati, Ohio/Ursuline Academy) and Keene (Demorest, Ga./Tallulah Falls HS) delivered and finished first, third and fourth like they did on the 3m board. Wakefield’s win in the final event was the third of her rookie campaign.
“The divers continued to do a phenomenal job,” Rollins commented. “It’s been a long time since we’ve had such a strong group of divers. To have them perform as well as they did was exciting to see and they kept us in it against Tulane.”
Though the Eagles did drop their first conference match of the season by falling to Liberty, the team was able to close in on the Tulane squad that finished fourth at the Phill Hansel Invitational. At that invite, the Green Wave outscored FGCU by 162 points. FGCU also earned its largest margin of victory of the 2019-20 season, besting Illinois State (1-2, 0-1 Valley) by 148 points.
Up Next
FGCU will remain at the Nest and prepare to host Stony Brook (4-4, 0-1 America East) in an 11 a.m. meet on Saturday, Jan. 11. The competition against the SeaWolves will be held on Staff Appreciation Day at the FGCU Aquatics Complex and fans are encouraged to participate in a white out.
Courtesy: Tulane Athletics
FORT MYERS, Fla. – The Tulane University swimming and diving team competed in the FGCU quad meet this afternoon where it defeated Illinois State (180-32), tied with Florida Gulf Coast (112-112) and a lost to Liberty (131-93).
The competition was held at the FGCU Aquatics Complex.
Tulane ended the session with a handful of strong performances, including four first-place finishes.
“I am very proud of how they swam,” head coach Leah Stancil said. “As usual their task is to race and they did a great job of that despite how physically tired they were from the training trip.”
The Green Wave had a strong showing in the 400 IM, as four Tulane individuals finished in the top six. Senior Olivia Johnson led the way, claiming first in a time of 4:20.39. Teammates Jordan Morling, Mya Drost-Parra and Kate Amar followed by finishing third (4:31.88), fourth (4:33.14) and sixth (4:39.06), respectively.
Johnson also would go on to claim the 500 yard freestyle, as she posted a time of 4:58.31.
Juniors Courtney Barker and Kate McDonald also had winning swims, as both posted victories in the 100 free (52.43) and 100 breast (1:03.62), respectively.
Both Green Wave relays took third place with finishing times of 1:46.42 in the 200 medley relay and 3:33.40 in the 400 freestyle relay.
LAGNIAPPE
Sophomore Noa Heron had several noteworthy performances, taking second in both the 200 freestyle (1:53.61) and the 500 freestyle (5:00.36).
UP NEXT
Tulane returns on Jan. 8 in their meet against University of West Florida in Pensacola.
Be sure to follow the program on Facebook and Twitter (@GreenWaveSwim) and on Instagram (@TulaneSwimDive). Fans can also follow Tulane Athletics on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Courtesy: Illinois State Athletics
FT. MYERS, Fla. – The Illinois State swimmers wrapped up non-conference action on Saturday, competing against Florida Gulf Coast, Liberty and Tulane at the outdoor FGCU Aquatics Complex.
“Today was a great learning opportunity for us, as we raced some very talented programs in FGCU, Tulane and Liberty,” head swimming coach Caitlin Hamilton shared. “Coming off some time at home, and starting our training here, I am happy with how we raced overall. Right now, we are looking forward to our upcoming conference match-ups. For our last two meets in January, there are some details I want to fine-tune to help us prepare for a successful championship season.”
Jensen Keck was Illinois State’s overall top finisher, turning in a fourth-place performance in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:06.06). Fellow senior Kierston Farley-Sepe grabbed a sixth-place finish in the 100-yard backstroke, clocking in at 59.39 in her first attempt in the event this season.
Haley Rivera and Julia Oostman each secured a top-10 finish in their individual events with times of 4:43.30 (400-yard IM) and 5:20.89 (500-yard freestyle), respectively. Makenna Licking was the top Redbird performer in a pair of events – 100-yard freestyle (55.87) and 200-yard freestyle (2:00.44) – while Alyssa Reinholz, Katie Tillotson and Lauren Naeger also finished first for ISU in the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly events.
RESULTS
Tulane (180) – ISU (32)
Liberty (188) – ISU (30)
FGCU (183) – ISU (35)
UP NEXT
Illinois State will close its 2019-20 home slate on Saturday, Jan. 18 at Horton Pool, when it hosts UNI at 12 p.m. The Redbirds will recognize the program’s seven seniors ahead of the meet.
