FIU Panthers Prowl

Quick hits: men's hoop gets rolled, swimming results

FIU started a blowout and FAU finished it, slamming the Panthers 77-60 Saturday night. I'll have more from this later including a rant I heard earlier in the week that might've been a hint that this was coming.

Also, I'll have more detail from the last day of the Sun Belt Swimming & Diving Championships. Sabrina Beaupre now has a hat trick of Diver of the Year awards from The Belt. Beaupre's coach, Rio Ramirez, got the Diving Coach of the Year award. FAU's Eszter Bucz, who upset last yea'r Swimmer of the Year Johanna Gustafsdottir in the 200 individual medley, got Swimmer of the Year over Gustafsdottir, who still had another fantastic conference meet.

Gustafsdottir, Beaupre, Klara Andersson, Dani Albright, Jessica Chadwick, Sonia Perez and Marina Ribi made First Team All-Conference for FIU.

Gustafsdottir wins 200 back, FIU leads FAU at half

Up on The Campus with The Klink, FIU leads FAU 31-30 after dominating the game early. FAU, 1 of 11 from three-point range, has blown a number of open looks, which is the worrisome part for FIU -- the Owls shouldn't continue shooting this badly. Of course, FIU shouldn't waste as many possessions as they did in the first half.

Meanwhile, in Texas, FIU got a win and a school record in the first two Saturday night events at the Sun Belt Swimming Championships.

The win came from last year's Swimmer of the Year, Johanna Gustafsdottir, in the 200 backstroke. Gustafsdottir won by 1.44 seconds, in 1:54.50, a tenth of a second off her school record time ste at last year's Sun Belt meet. Gustafsdottir now has two individual titles this year, part of two relay wins and a second place in the 200 individual medley.

Sonia Perez didn't win the 1650 freestyle, finishing third in 16:35.87, but did break the oldest FIU record, Claudia Barsi's 16:45.98 at the 2004 Sun Belt Championships.

Klara Andersson and Dani Albright finished fourth and fifth in the 100 free, but Andersson got Gustafsdottir's school record with a 50.90. 

Women getting it done on a Saturday

How's this for a shocker -- FIU's women beat FAU 68-65 Saturday afternoon and Jerica Coley did NOT make the pivotal plays. At least, not all of them.

FIU did go on a 7-0 run to end the game and Coley had six of those points. But in the midst of all that, Marita Davydova grabbed a defensive rebound, got fouled and hit one of two free throws to put FIU up 66-65 with 32.0 seconds left. Then, Carmen Miloglav picked Chenise Miller clean and handed the loot to Coley, forcing FAU to foul Coley with 17.3 seconds left. Coley's two free throws required FAU to go for a three to tie and Kimberly Smith's desperation try bounced away. 

Say this for FAU -- their arena looks like an outdated 1971 office building from the outside, not the equal of my middle school's gym on the inside. They played the women's game four hours before the men's game instead of the usual two because the joint doesn't have enough locker rooms. But they got a few folks in there for a 3 p.m. women's game. And FAU doesn't have the nation's leading scorer. Maybe FIU should consider Saturday afternoon starts.

Before the FIU and FAU women put on a show worthy of the main event, here's what happened at the day session before the last night of the Sun Belt Swimming & Diving Championships:

Johanna Gustafsdottir put up the fastest prelim time in the 200 backstroke, 1:57.45. Freshman Becky Wilde also will be in the top eight after a 2:02.86 that was almost three seconds better than her previous best this year.

In the 100 freestyle, 50 free winner Klara Andersson and freshman Dani Albright qualified third and fourth, respectively, for tonight's final with times of 51.15 and 51.27. Freshman Jessica Chadwick (2:17.45) and senior Krissy Metka (2:18.56) each bettered her previous best time by almost five seconds in making the 200 breaststroke's top eight.

Marina Ribi, second in the 100 fly Friday, was third in the 200 fly, 2:00.65 She'll be in the final with Sarah D'Antoni (2:02.85). The final event of the night is the 400 free relay, in which FIU has the second best seed time behind North Texas.