After the Giants rookie minicamp, safety Junior Mertile went from rookie tryout status to signed for training camp. So he'll get a shot. A longshot, but a shot.
Meanwhile, the Ravens jettisoned cornerback Jose Cheeseborough after rookie camp.
Although Monique Garcia's still listed as the athletic department's Assistant Director of APR on the FIUSports site, a few different sources said Garcia left weeks ago. They seem to think it portends even more trouble than expected on the APR front for football and basketball.
FIU threw an offer at Baker County defensive tackle CeCe Jefferson. Jefferson's 6-3, 265, already drawing interest from national powerhouses...and just entering his junior year.
What the heck, can't hurt to ask.
FUND-RAISING
If you've got an extra hundred or 10K sitting around or you can scounge up that scratch with your friends, you can get involved in the 4th annual FIU Athletics Golf Tournament June 14 at Doral. Chunks of football season tickets come with some packages.
Call 305-348-4263 for more information.
TRACK & FIELD
The FIU women finished seventh with 46 points, 90.5 behind winner North Texas, and the men were ninth with 34 points, 77 behind winner Arkansas State in the Sun Belt Conference meet hosted by FIU this weekend.
Obviously, when the recent past looks unimpressive, you look at the future. For FIU's men, that means the freshman jumpers. Marcus Ghent picked up 11 total points from a third in the long jump and a fourth in the triple jump (49 feet, 7 inches). Freshman Chris Sullivan tied for sixth in the high jump at 6-6 3/4.
Senior Aubrey Smith finished third in the triple jump (49-11). Smith's six points and Ghent's 11 points means exactly half of FIU's total points came in the long and the triple.
On the women's side, freshman Oriel Anu picked up points in the 100 hurdles (fourth, 13.90 seconds), the 100 (seventh, 12.30) and, with freshman Phillicia Fluellen, sophomore Desmika White and freshman Maya Balfour, in the 4x100 relay (eighth, 47.08). White was with junior La'Shae White (no relation), senior Juliette Normil and freshman Jaylaan Slaughter on the fourth place 4x400 relay (3:45.92).
In the field, freshman Tiffani Hernandez threw the javelin 136-4 and came in third. Freshman Miriam Pierre hurled the hammer 167-3, good for fifth place behind senior teammate Kimberly Dekrey's best, 169-5. Pierre totaled nine points in the hammer throw, shot put and discus.
Hosting the Sun Belt Track and Field Championships hasn't boosted FIU's fortunes in results. Still, there have been some bright spots.
Freshman Marcus Ghent finished third in the long jump with a leap of 24 feet, 1.5 inches.
Senior Charmille Kirton's 150-foot, 3-inch hurl was good for third in the diiscus. Freshman Miriam Pierre threw 141-4 in the discus, good for seventh and finished sixth in the shot put with a 43-11 3/4 put.
Sophomore Tikiera Relaford jumped 5 feet, 7 3/4 inches to finish fifth in the high jump.
Now, go call your mother, your grandmother, your great grandmother, that aunt who was like a mother...
FIU swung by Tampa Wharton recently to visit and extend an offer to quarterback Chase Litton. Litton's 6-6, rated at three stars, but reportedly already has a poker hand of offers, including one from LSU.
FIU also dropped by Oviedo, where they showed some love to quarterback Chris Davis, more a runner than a passer (future wide receiver?) and defensive end Tyree Owens, a 6-4 recruit ranked at zero to three stars by the recruiting services.
FIU also offered 6-3 Orlando University tight end Brandon Pylar.
WOMEN'S GOLF
FIU sits 18th, 27 shots back of leader, No.2 Alabama, in the NCAA East Regional after Thursday's first round.
Freshman Meghan MacLaren and Shelby Coyle came in with FIU's best rounds of the day, 3-over 75s. Tania Tare and Yolecci Jimenez each shot 5-over 77. Sophie Godley finsihed 7-over 79.
SOFTBALL
A pair of losses, 8-7 to Louisiana-Lafayette Wednesday and 14-9 to Troy Thursday, ended FIU's Sun Belt Conference tournament and season.
TRACK & FIELD
The school leaving the conference in a month and a half hosts the track championships even though they don't actually have a track facility: FIU, Sun Belt Conference championships, Ansin Sports Complex in Miramar.
Senior Daniela Espino has the best chance for a first place on the women's side, as she comes in with a 5,000 meter best time of 17:12.24, second in the Sun Belt. On the men's side, check out Sun Belt Indoor Track Freshman of the Year Marcus Ghent in the long jump or triple jump. Ghent's out of Northwestern and it never hurts to have a big meet near your home turf.
FIU's Sept. 7 game against Central Florida will be a noon affair at FIU Stadium on CBS Sports Network. So get out your sunscreen and pace your consumption or else, well, the barfing in the heat won't be confined to the field.
Also on the Conference USA TV schedule announced Monday, the Shula Bowl at FAU will be at 3 p.m. on Fox Sports on Black Friday. Try not to get trampled.
The Saturday before, Nov. 23, Fox Sports will have FIU's home game against Marshall. The time for that game, as well as Comcast Sports Southeast games at Southern Mississippi (Oct. 5) and home to Alabama-Birmingham (Oct. 12), remain undecided.
Marshall wide receiver Jermain Kelson has transferred to FIU with one season of eligibility left. Kelson played quarterback at Southridge before switching to wide receiver at Marshall. Over the last two seasons, he caught 30 passes for 277 yards.
SAND VOLLEYBALL
FIU's Kate Stepanova earned All-America recognition from the American Volleyball Coaches Association.
SOFTBALL
On the eve of FIU's Sun Belt Conference tournament opener against Louisiana-Lafayette, FIU seniors Brie Rojas (second base) and Amber Curry (at large) were named to the All-Sun Belt Second Team.
For 27-26 (10-13) FIU, Rojas hit .275 with a team-high nine doubles, five home runs and 65 total bases. Curry had a team-high .417 on base percentage and .462 slugging percentage.
FIU's sand volleyball season, which ended Sunday, could've come with the Brooklyn-esque "Wait 'til next year!"
Three of the four players on FIU's top two pairs, Jessica Mendoza/Maryna Samoday and Kate Stepanova/Ksenia Sukhareva, are juniors. The 6-3 Stepanova finished her graduate work at FIU and will be the only player out of eligibility.
Mendoza/Samoday got to the semifinals of the (deep breath) American Volleyball Coaches Association Collegiate Sand Volleyball Championship pairs championship before losing to Long Beach State's Caitlin Ledoux and Tara Roenicke 21-11, 21-16.
Before that, Mendoza/Samoday beat Chelsea Cabrajac and Delainey Aigner-Swesey in three sets, 21-11, 22-24, 15-12, then got past Florida State's Jace Pardon and Sara Wickstrom, 21-19, 21-15.
Stepanova/Sukhareva outlasted Saint Mary's Dalas Dodd (daughter of 1996 Olympics beach silver medalist Mike Dodd) and Jordan Shaw 12-21, 21-18, 15-13. In the quarterfinal round, Georgia State's Lane Carico and Katie Madewell took out the FIU pair, 21-15, 13-21, 15-12.
When you've got a small roster that might be getting shorter after grades say some guys had trouble with the "student" part of student-athlete, you start recruiting the next class as soon as possible.
FIU's thrown out offers to Neptune Beach Fletcher quarterback/punter Luke Medlock (brother of Jake Medlock), Jacksonville Bishop Kenny John Wolford....
Davie Western defensive back Juwon Dowels and Vero Beach wide receiver Will Dawkins.
Grades posted Thursday. I'm hearing the football Panthers either ineligible for the first four games (at least) or in need of summer savings number at least eight. Most of the names I've heard are on defense, but three are offensive skill position players.
Of course, considering FIU's looking at a 1-3 record in the first four games -- going to Maryland in the first game for a new coach, hosting Bethune-Cookman and Central Florida, going to Sugar Bowl-champion Louisville -- not much harm there. But there won't be much time to integrate those players heading into the Conference USA schedule.
SAND VOLLEYBALL
Meanwhile, FIU exported two pairs to the 16-pair "Best of the Rest" tournament at the American Volleyball Coaches Association Sand Volleyball National Championship. Each went 2-0 Friday.
Jessica Mendoza and Maryna Samoday, the No. 3 seed in their group, today face No. 2 seed Kelly Reeves and Meg Norton from UCLA and Bethanie Thomas and Kariana Hirini from Alabama-Birmingham. Kate Stepanova and Ksenia Sukhareva No. 2 in their group, will face No. 1 Tylor Nyquist and Sammie Strausbaugh from Jacksonville U. That's in the afternoon, after they get Loyola Marymount's Felicia Arriola and Litara Kell earlier in the day.
BASKETBALL
Leading scorer Tymell Murphy announced via Twitter that he'll be staying at FIU for his senior season.
San Francisco, Green Bay, Dallas, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Washington, over to 27th Avenue and turn north to the Dolphins...all have been mentioned as possible landing spots for safety Johnathan Cyprien either Thursday or Friday in the NFL Draft.
I like that Cyprien's holding his draft watch party Friday, the night of Rounds 2 and 3. That way, the party's either going on when he gets picked in the second round or a celebration of being taken in the first round Thursday night.
What's interesting to me is instead of climbing draft charts based on being a workout warrior -- he did only the vertical jump among the decathlon-type measurements at the combine -- Cyp impressed draftniks enough at Senior Bowl practices to send draftniks back to the game tape on him. Seeing Cyprien as first two rounds material comes from football analysis, not athleticism-birthed hope.
All the buzz could be wrong. But you'd rather bet on analysis than hope.
GOLF
Sun Belt champion FIU predictably dominated the Sun Belt conference's awards, which were announced Thursday.
Freshman Meghan MacLaren, medalist at the conference championship tournament, was named Freshman of the Year, and Joe Vogel received Coach of the Year honors. MacLaren, Shelby Cole and Sophie Godley comprised half the All-Sun Belt First Team. Yolecci Jimeez and Tania Tare were voted to the Second Team by the league's head coaches.
Early in the season, sand volleyball coach Rita Buck-Crockett said FIU's top two pairs could stand up against any in the country. FIU just needed to get some depth behind them for team success.
While FIU got enough depth to get to No. 8 in the nation, that still left them outside the velvet rope when it came to this year's American Volleyball Coaches Association Sand Volleyball Championship in the team category. Pepperdine, Long Beach State, USC, North Florida, Florida State and Louisiana-Monroe comprise that field.
But FIU's top two pairs, Kate Stepanova/Ksenia Sukhareva and Jessica Mendoza/Maryna Samoday got picked for the 16-team pairs competition -- the No. 1 pairs from the six schools in the team championship and 10 other pairs adjudged by the nation's coaches as the nation's best. Among those 10 pairs, only FIU and UCLA have two pairs in the group.
All of this will take place May 3-5 at Gulf Shores, Alabama. The final of the team championship Saturday as well as the semifinal and final of Sunday's pairs championship will be on CBS Sports Network.
FIU's only conference titleists over the last two academic years: women's soccer in 2011 -- they lost 1-0 in the Sun Belt final in 2012 and with almost everybody back should contend in Conference USA next year -- and 2013 women's golf.
So you can understand why the latter got a nice welcome from athletic department folks upon being dropped off by Super Shuttle at The Branch after winning this week's Sun Belt tournament.
"We really had the best team oging in and I was hoping we'd be able to play to what our capabilities were," FIU coach Joe Vogel said. "They were really able to do that. We've got a balanced team. My No. 5 player (Sophie Godley) finished in the top five in the tournament. When that happens, you're in pretty good shape. Meghan (MacLaren) won and Tania Tare finished right up there at the top as well."
Vogel pointed to Tare's Wednesday 69 as a key to FIU bringing home the title.
"We were not up by that much going into the backside. Then Tania whipped off three birdies in a row, actually birdied four of the last five. Three girls birdied No. 17. That pretty much sealed it right there."
MacLaren, who finished with medalist honors by two shots with a 4-under 212, said, "I thought the course was pretty tough because we played the practice round in hot conditions. The first round, I played solid and I started to think there were a few birdies out there. And I hit it well all week."
This team is truly Florida (freshman Jasmine Wade, junior Shelby Coyle) and International (the other five players on the roster).
"I always wanted to come to America and I spoke to a few different people and they got me in touch with Coach," said MacLaren, from Cambridge in the UK. "Right from when I started speaking to him, I knew this was a serious possibility. He made me feel really welcome."
FIU athletic director Pete Garcia named golf as a sport he felt FIU should be good in out of location, location, location. True, two-fifths of the PGA Tour lives in Palm Beach County and another two-fifths seemingly live between Orlando and the Florida-Georgia line, but golf's got the same problem as tennis, swimming and other sports where the best young talent flows past the collegiate level. The best young studs and studettes have the choice of playing for a paid education or playing to get paid. That cuts down the talent pool.
"It's hard to recruit. Any time you go after good palyers, there will be several other schools after them as well," Vogel said. "I like to have the advantage of being in South Florida with the weather, especially when I reach out to the girls in Europe or even South America. It's such a good fit for them. They can come over here and practice all the months we're here versus up north where they don't have the weather we do."
TENNIS
A 3-16 season ended Thursday with FIU getting booted from the Sun Belt tennis tournament by Arkansas-Little Rock. But freshman Carlotta Orlando was named to the All-Sun Belt team.
SAND VOLLEYBALL
FIU's ranked No. 8 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association national poll that came out Thursday. The 6-5 Panthers have two losses to No. 1 and undefeated Pepperdine and one to No. 2 Long Beach State University. Six teams get invited to the national championships May 3-5 in Gulf Shores, Alabama.
Three FIU players finished in the top five as FIU ran away with the Sun Belt Conference women's golf title after three days on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail's Fighting Joe Course at The Shoals (phew) in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. FIU gets an automatic berth to the NCAAs East Regional, to be hosted by Auburn, May 9-11.
Freshman Meghan MacLaren did an Ayrton Senna in a McLaren-Honda or Bruce McLaren in his Can-Am McLaren on the field, leading wire-to-wire in winning medalist honors with a 4-under 212. Freshman Sophie Godley's 2-over 218 got her a tie for fourth and senior Tania Tare finished in fifth, 3-0ver 219.
Freshman swimmer Dani Albright made First Team All-Sun Belt after a conference meet in which she was part of the conference-record setting 800 freestyle relay team and conference-record tying 400 free relay team. Through the season, she produced strong times in the 100 free, 200 free and 500 free.
"She said at midseason, she decided she didn't want to swim anymore," Horner said. "It's not what she wanted to do with herself all through college. She wanted to live more of a normal life."
Horner admitted it's a hard loss for the program. Albright, he felt, could've qualified for the NCAAs by her junior year. But, he said, once you lose the passion for swimming...
Horner said sophomore Hannah Mitchell also would be transferring and leaving competitive swimming.
Perhaps more than any sport, being even a mediocre collegiate swimmer requires a delicate balance. Not a balanced life -- that's not happening. But a balance between being almost disciple devoted to the sport and getting the most out of what little remains of that irreplaceable commodity, time.
That balanced imbalance must be maintained from youth. Nobody's a latecomer to swimming at this level. There's no "I didn't start swimming until my junior year of high school" among swimmers, the way you hear in football, basketball, baseball, even track.
Albright's 18, the same age FIU sophomore Johanna Gustafsdottir was when she decided she'd had enough of competitive swimming. There's something to wanting to spend more afternoons being a normal college student, even if that involves not doing jack except arguing whether Phineas or Ferb is the true genius. Gustafsdottir got the urge back after two years. Many don't.
Maybe Olympic gold medalist Missy Franklin knew what she was doing when she stayed with her longtime coach and remained a Colorado high school student as she prepped for the 2012 Olympic Games.
Franklin went back to Aurora Regis Jesuit High School after the Olympics. She swam for the school team and led them to the state title in February. The affable, giddy Franklin said she'd do the same thing 100 times over.
"She's 17 and she wanted to stay 17," her father told the Denver Post.
Western Kentucky's leaving the Sun Belt for Conference USA in 2014, the school and C-USA officially announced today. So, that means FIU, FAU, North Texas, Middle Tennessee State and Western will make that move between July 2013 and July 2014.
My first thought was, "That's only one year away from Bobby Petrino." Petrino won't head up Western's football program for long, four years at the outside, more likely three. But the man can recruit and coach and his track record says he'll be a problem for the rest of his conference, whatever that conference is. That's the Sun Belt this year and Conference USA with FIU after that.
BASEBALL
Junior Tyler Alexander's four-hit, 10-strikeout 1-0 win against Arkansas State got him named Sun Belt Pitcher of the Week, the conference announced Monday afternoon.
SWIMMING & DIVING
FIU's 3.15 GPA from the fall got them recognized as a College Swimming Coaches Association of America Scholar All-America Team. The honor goes to teams that achieve a 3.0 team GPA for a semester. This is FIU's fifth consecutive semester above that mark.
On vaca, so my recently sporadic updates from weeks of Doral-nursing-a-dying laptop will seem like breathless Tweets from the front for the next week. Unless they fire or lose a high profile coach, which is what happened at the end of my daughter's 2012 Spring Break.
So, here's some stuff for you to masticate for the next few days...
SWIMMING
Johanna Gustafsdottir finished 49th in the 100 backstroke and Sonia Perez came in 39th in the 400 individual medley Friday at the NCAA championships. Gustafsdottir swam 54.92, well off her seed time of 53.94, and Perez swam 4:16.25, also slower than her seed time of 4:10.54. Judging from times up and down the prelims, the IU Natatorium pool in Indianapolis is part sludge this year.
Both will be in the 200 back this morning. Last year, only Gustafsdottir qualified for the NCAAs among FIU's swimmers, which qualify by time and not conference position. (Sabrina Beaupre qualified as a diver, but opted for ankle surgery instead of the NCAAs).
TRACK
Freshman Marcus Ghent won the long jump with a jump of 23 feet, 8 3/4 inches at the UCF Invitational Friday.
First, the setup for the Sun Belt basketball tournaments next week in Hot Springs, Arkansas ("Sal-loot!").
The men and women of Middle Tennessee State monopolize the No. 1 seeds. FIU's women have the No. 5 seed and will face No. 4 seed Arkansas State Saturday at 11:30 a.m. The winner faces the winner of Middle vs. FAU or Louisiana-Monroe. Which is to say, if FIU wins, it faces Middle Tennessee on March 10 in the Sun Belt semifinal.
That's not a lock for Middle. With Diamond Ashmore, Finda Mansare and Kamika Idom, FIU dealt Middle the first of its three conference losses and did so at Murfreesboro. Those three were missing in the rematch at The Branch, when FIU hung in until the lack of defense and rebounding down low sunk the Panthers. Idom should be back from her knee injury for the tournament, giving FIU another true outside shooting threat besides Jerica Coley.
The men go in as a No. 4 seed, playing Saturday at 6 p.m. against Arkansas-Little Rock. FIU split with UALR, losing by 12 there and winning by 13 at home. In the first game, FIU had nine steals and 14 points off turnovers while UALR used their size advantage for a 42-14 points in the paint differential. In the sequel, the Panthers came up with 14 seteals and 25 points off turnovers and UALR's advantage from the lane was only 35-30.
The winner plays Middle Tennessee, which smacked FIU by 17 near Nashville then needed a last second shot by local native Sean Jones to beat FIU at the buzzer after trailing by 20 at one point.
The second Arkansas-Little Rock game was the last game before a pre-practice locker room blistering -- audible all the way across the hall behind the locker room -- Pitino gave the team last Tuesday.
"I think they've been slipping a little bit from what got us here," Pitino said after Saturday night's 77-60 slashing by FAU. "I haven't loved the way they've been practicing. I think it's tough this time of year because I think they're just looking for the games. We've been doing this so long, the practices get a little monotonous. I think they're kind of worn down from that."
But, Pitino said, "We've got a whole week now to get better."
Speaking of getting better, Cameron Bell hopes that'll be what happens with his back soon. While driving to the hoop Saturday night, Bell got hammered to the floor and landed on his lower back or posterior (hard to tell which at that angle). He left with an ice pack on his lower back.
SWIMMING & DIVING
FIU took down a few more school records and tied a Sun Belt record in the last event of the Sun Belt Swimming & Diving Championships, the 400 freestyle relay.
Johanna Gustafsdottir motored through the first leg in 50.10, thus regaining her school record in the 100 free that Klara Andersson had taken earlier in the Saturday night session. That gave FIU an almost full second lead on FAU, which eventually fell back to third behind North Texas. Andersson lost a teeny bit of the lead, which was quickly restored by Dani Albright. Marina Ribi brought home FIU in 3:21.67, which tied the Sun Belt record set by Denver in 2009 and beat the school record set at last year's Sun Belt meet when Andersson and Gustafsdottir sandwiching Kelly Grace and Kayla Derr.
That gave Gustafsdottir two individual wins and three relay wins, each of which she led off. In two, she led off with school record swims and the third she merely gave FIU a lead it maintained until the end. Yet Sun Belt coaches still voted FAU's Eszter Bucz, who also had two individual titles, Most Outstanding Swimmer. If they say so...I just note it was Bucz's third leg that took FAU out of contention in the 400 free relay. Her 52.0 swim took FAU from less than a second behind leader FIU to 2.1 seconds off the lead and in third place (North Texas steamed past).
Gustafsdottir in the 200 IM and Sonia Perez in the 400 IM qualified for the NCAAs. Last year, only Gustafsdottir among the swimmers made the NCAAs. Diver Sabrina Beaupre came into the Sun Belt meet long ago having already qualified, but will have ankle surgery Thursday to fix an almost year old problem.
Earning First Team All-Conference were Gustafsdottir, Andersson, Albright, Jessica Chadwick, Sonia Perez, Marinia Ribi, diver Sabrina Beaupre. Valeriia Popova and Courtney Vanderschaaf made the Third Team.
For more from tonight's sessions, see earlier blog linked to below.
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.
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.
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.
"This was one of those days you hope to have when you get into coaching," FIU coach Randy Horner said Friday night after the third day of the Sun Belt Swimming & Diving Championships.
Horner didn't just mean the wins by Sonia Perez in the 400 IM (school and Sun Belt record), Johanna Gustafsdottir in the 100 backstroke (school record) or the 400 medley relay team (school record). Track and swim coaches dream of meets when everybody walks out feeling good after beating the clock as they never have before and you find unexpected gold.
Take freshman Jessica Chadwick, who finished fourth in the 100 breaststroke Friday night with a 1:02.84. After Chadwick was fifth in the 100 breaststroke prelims Friday morning with a 1:03.39, a time almost three seconds faster than her previous season best (that's a lot over any distance, an eternity over 100 meters), Horner decided to make her the breaststroker on the 400 medley relay Friday night. That let him move sophomore Klara Andersson, winner of the 50 freestyle on Thursday, to the freestyle leg ("She's the best freestyleer in the conference right now," Horner said). Horner already knew he'd have Gustafsdottir would handle back and Marina Ribi would take butterfly.
So FIU led off the 400 medley relay with the best 100 meter backstroker in the conference; then went to the fourth best 100 meter breastroker; the second best (by less than a blink) 100 meter fly woman; and finished with the fastest freestyle sprinter, whose advantage might be enhanced at 100 meters. Gustafsdottir gave a 71 hundreths of a second lead to Chadwick and FIU was off to a 3:40.87, smashing the school record set at last year's Sun Belt meet by 6.11 seconds.
Perez qualified for the NCAAs with her 400 IM switime of 4:10.54. She had the best prelim time by 7.5 seconds Friday morning. Friday night, the junior beat her hours-old school and Sun Belt record of 4:11.96 to win by 5.05 seconds over second place Hannah Runyon-Hass from Western Kentucky. The previous Sun Belt record of 4:12.64 was held by third-place finisher Eszter Bucz from FAU, who was up by 3.12 seconds on Arau and 2.19 on Runyon-Hass after the opening butterfly leg.
As she did in the morning, Perez was faster in the second half of both the backstroke and the freestyle legs than the first half and was only one hundredth of a second slower in the second half of the breaststroke leg. She passed Runyon-Hass on the second half of the backstroke leg, then caught Bucz in the second half of the breaststroke leg and pulled away in freestyle.
"In the 400 IM, you want negative splits, faster in the second half of each 100," Horner said. "She swam a textbook race."
FIU freshman Becky Wilde's 4:24.48 brought her home fifth and was a 13-second improvement over her best time before Friday. Sophomore Jean Madison's 4:30.75 put her 11th and freshman Sarah Smith got 14th place points for her 4:34.34.
Gustafsdottir threw it down in the prelims with a 54.74 to break her own school record, then threw a raise on that with a 53.94 in the final to win by 54 hundreths of a second. That sounds closer than it was -- Nos. 2, 3 and 4 were separated by 52 hundreths of a second. Valeriia Popova (58.31) and Chelsie Kidd (58.42) got points for FIU in 12th and 14th, respectively.
And Sabrina Beaupre won the 1-meter diving again. Her 294.60 wasn't close to her Sun Belt record 323.85 from last year, but was still 28 points better than second place. Beaupre now will have surgery on her left ankle to set herself up for a stronger senior year instead of diving in the NCAAs, as she did last year.
Grab a stopwatch and try to click off just three hundreths of a second. That's how close senior Ribi came to winning the 100 butterfly. Ribi knocked down the school record again, as she did in the prelims, but her 54.78 was three hundreths behind North Texas' Mona Groteguth. Junior Sarah D'Antoni came in seventh (56.58) for FIU.
"We thought she'd won," Horner said. "It was so close, you couldn't tell with the naked eye."
Freshman Dani Albright's 1:49.06 brought her home third in the 200 freestyle. FIU had three of the top 8 finalists in the 100 breast and wound up taking seven of the 15 scoring slots: fourth, Chadwick (1:02.84); sixth, Andersson (1:03.23); eighth, Madison (1:04.58); ninth, sophomore Dani Meara (1:04.15); 11th, senior Krissy Metka (1:06.02); 12th, junior Mary Boucher (1:06.10); and 14th, junior Melissa Moreno (1:08.90).
Despite FIU's wins, the team competition is still coming down to North Texas and Western on volume of swimmers and divers. The host school leads the Hilltoppers 600 to 586 going into Saturday with FIU in third at 489.
After a few school records Friday morning, Friday night sets up this way for FIU at the Sun Belt Swimming & Diving meet:
Sonia Perez and Johanna Gustafsdottir should be considered favorites in the 400 individual medley and the 100 backstroke, respectively. Perez's school record 4:12.95 was the fastest seed time by 1.5 seconds and she beat that with a 4:11.96, better than the second best prelim time by 7.5 seconds. Perez actually was faster in the second 50 of the backstroke and freestyle legs than the first 50 of each.
Gustafsdottir's 54.74 was the Sun Belt's fastest in the prelims and broke the school record of 54.92 she set a year ago at the Sun Belt Time Trials.
And in the 1-meter diving, Sabrina Beaupre...look, if you don't read that Beaupre's comletely shattered her left ankle jumping up and down because Air Canada just dropped their fares to Greece, she's winning this. Her 281.20 was 15.15 points away from second place.
In the 100 butterfly and 200 free, FIU's got the second fastest from the prelims. Senior Marina Ribi's 55.12 was only nine hundreths off the best prelim time and 42 hundredths under Yesica Rojas' school record set two years ago. Freshman Dani Albright, showing the kind of improvement at the conference meet that Gustafsdottir did a year ago as a freshman, knocked over two seconds off her best 200 free time with a 1:49.55.
(Speaking of freshman showing up strong in the conference meet, Becky Wilde (4:27.61) dropped 10 seconds off her seed time in the 400 IM and was sixth in the prelims.
In the 100 breaststroke, FIU's got volume -- three of the top eight in freshman Jessica Chadwick (1:03.39), sophomore Klara Andersson (1:03.53) and sophomore Jean Madison (1:04.45).
The 400 medley relay closes the night. FIU's seeded fourth, 3:47.79. FIU was fifth last year in school record 3:46.96 with Perez swimming leadoff back, Andersson on breast, Gustafsdottir on fly and Kayla Derr on free. This year's seed time came with Perez, Andersson, then Ribi on fly and Gustafsdottir swimming free in November. Don't be surprised if that's the foursome again Friday night. Also don't be surprised if they shatter the school record.
