Friday Morning Happy Hour for FIU Swim & Dive

UPCOMING HOME GAMES/MATCHES

 Friday -- Softball vs. Siena, 4:30 p.m.

Friday -- Softball vs. Central Connecticut State, 7 p.m.

Friday -- Baseball vs. Seton Hall, 6:30

Saturday -- Softball vs. Central Connecticut State, 4 p.m.

Saturday -- Softball vs. Deleware, 6:30 p.m.

Saturday -- Baseball vs. Seton Hall, 6:30

Saturday -- Women's Basketball vs. Florida Atlantic, 7 p.m. 

Sunday -- Baseball vs. Seton Hall, 1 p.m.

Sunday -- Softball vs. Siena, 12:30 p.m.

Before we get to the destruction FIU's water women wrought in the pool Friday morning, let's talk tearing it up in the classroom. Senior Valeri Inghels, junior Lily Kaufmann and sophomore Rebecca Quesnel made the 2016 Conference USA All-Academic Swimming & Diving team, as announced Friday afternoon. You need a 3.2 GPA and be an integral part of your team.

Inghels, who won the 500 freestyle Thursday at the CUSA Swimming & Diving Championships, has a 3.89 GPA as a communications arts major. Kaufmann, who led FIU in diving at last year's meet in Quesnel's absence and finished third in the 3-meter Thursday, is a psychology major with a 3.71 GPA. Quesnel, the dominant CUSA regular season diver the last two years, has a 3.78 and studies criminal justice.

Now, then. About that pool...

The clock is ticking on Rice and Marshall at the Conference USA Swimming & Diving Championships because FIU keeps beating Rice, Marshall, the clock and anybody else showing up at the McAuley Aquatic Center in Atlanta.

FIU did exactly what it needed to do Friday morning as owner's of a 117-point lead on Marshall and 136 on Rice after Day 2: prevent blowouts in their weaker events, set up blowouts in the stronger ones. And without some DQs or drownings, the Panthers could realistically clinch a repeat as Conference USA Champions tonight.

The 400 individual medley is where Rice and Marshall stood the best chance of chopping into FIU's lead. And the two chasing teams did put three each in the top eight, led by Rice sophomore Kaitly Swinney's 4:20.43. But FIU freshman Ilari Manzella (4:20.95, second best behind Swinney) and senior Becky Wilde also got past the rope into the top eight club. FIU's Chase Harris (4:31.37) is in the second eight with two Rice swimmers and one Marshall swimmer. Points bomb defused.

On the other hand, FIU pulled the pins on the grenades in the 100 butterfly and 200 free. Both Inghels (53.69) and freshman Mari Lauridsen (53.76) broke Inghels' school record of 53.88 while sophomore Letizia Bertelli's personal best 54.10 completed a sweep of the top three prelim times. Junior Jenny Deist (54.78) gave FIU half the top eight. Rice and Marshall each have two swimmers in that final.

But in the 200 free, Marshall has zero, Rice has two and FIU's got the top three ("hee-hee!"*): sophomore Kyna Periera (1:49.01), sophomore Skye Carey (1:49.38), senior Jessica Piper (1:49.61).

Those are the same team breakdowns for the 100 backstroke top eight, where FIU freshman Naomi Ruele's 53.90 was the second fastest Friday morning behind North Texas freshman Rebeka Bradley's 53.13. Junior Jenny Alfani (53.94) and sophomore Ally Mayhew (56.47) allow FIU to outflank Rice in the top flight. Rice has three swimmers in the second eight. The 100 breaststroke could see a similar points stalemate or close enough for FIU's purposes. Sophomore Chase Harris' 1:03.83 made the top flight, a team bouillabaisse with two parts Rice, two parts North Texas, two parts Old Dominion, one part FIU, one part FAU and no parts Marshall. Freshman Nicole Hunnewell -- Coral Reef High in the house! -- and senior Jessica Chadwick got into the second eight by swimming 1:04.82 and 1:05.91, respectively.

And, even if all this evens out, the 1-meter diving will push FIU farther into the lead on Rice and generally stalemate with Marshall. Quesnel had the top score with Kaufmann sixth, and The Coronado Twins 10th (Natalia) and 11th (Laura).

A good Friday night by FIU won't leave much room for resurrection by Rice or Marshall on Saturday.

*Stolen from Peter Sellers in the original Casino Royale movie, which was, essentially, an Austin Powers movie done during the era of James Bond flicks the Austin Powers movies parodied 30 years later.

Another Honor (This Time Academic) For Water Women

For the sixth consecutive semester, FIU's swimming & diving team was named a Scholar All-American Team by the College Swimming Coaches Association of America.

The honor goes to teams that average above a 3.0 team grade point average. FIU's fall GPA was 3.32.

 

 

Volleyball Done

Missing kills leader Dajana Boskovic, who got arrested along with a teammate Thursday night, didn't prevent Conference USA volleyball tournament host UTSA from beating No. 7 seed FIU 3-1 Friday afternoon.

FIU ends the season 15-13. Senior Lucia Castro, in addition to being Second Team All-Conference USA, was named to the conference's All-Academic team Thursday.

Stuff Like That and This

What FIU got out of Friday night's Dolphins scrimmage financially might stop at rent and concessions, probably not a bad little take considering how Friday night festive Dolfans seemed to be. Festive fans eat and drink.

The school also got to show off FIU Stadium to several fans who probably hadn't been in La Cage before. Some of my media peers making their first appearances, even as they frowned through the Calcutta crowded nature of their own workspace, opined that it's a nice, well-sized venue for a G5 football school.

La Cage improved its sound system, thus allowing officials to actually be heard this year.

ACADEMICS

Sand volleyball player Anna Budinska was awarded Outstanding Student Performance by faculty vote in the International Business Masters program this year. Budinska transferred to FIU from North Florida, where she was the 2013-14 Female Scholar Athlete of the Year.

FOOTBALL

The Giants signed safety Justin Halley as an rookie free agent Friday. Interesting symmetry as the Jets signed FIU's other starting safety from 2014, DeMarkus Perkins, for a minute this spring.

And UMass still doesn't have a start time for the Oct. 3 game. Television could be involved.

 

 

 

C-USA Gives FIU's Vander Schaaf School Money

 FIU swimmer Courtney Vander Schaaf graduated with a psychology degree and minored in biology. She's going into the accelerated nursing program at Valparaiso -- yes, Valpo, known for Orville Redenbacher, Ken LaVicka and this shot -- and gets $4,000 toward that cost as one of 14 Conference USA Jim Castenada Postgraduate Scholarship recipients.

Castenada was a Rice coach, faculty athletics representative and instructor for 46 years. The scholarship recipients are chosen by the conference's faculty athletics reps.

Baseball Bits with Dopico & Julius

The Major League Baseball draft picked another Panther, righthanded relief pitcher Danny Dopico, Wednesday. He went in the 11th round, 322nd overall, to the Chicago White Sox. I almost put that in the headline just so I could use "Chisox."

Senior shortstop Julius Gaines was honored by Conference USA with one of the conference's Spirit of Service Awards. The honor shines a light on the athletes doing the best jobs of community service while also excelling academically and athletically. Gaines 500 volunteer hours led the baseball team and makes me wonder when he slept. He has a 3.63 grade point average as a recreation and sports management major while, of course, starting all but one game for the conference championship baseball team.

 

Related articles

Gaines All-Academic; FIU Has C-USA's Fastest Man

APR, Adidas, Athletics Cash

As the baseball team practiced (with adidas bats -- more on that later), the 2013-14 Academic Progress Rate numbers dropped. Not literally, but in the modern popular music vernacular.

Terry McMillan's Waiting to Exhale concerned African-American women and early 1990s relationships, not APR. But, it does tend to describe FIU around this time of the year. It's entirely possible one of the breezes I felt at the baseball stadium today came from the department exhaling over an APR report without any red flags or even yellow flags.

Men's track (indoor and outdoor), women's track, volleyball, softball, golf, women's cross country each registered perfect single-year APRs of 1000. Golf owned the lone perfect multiyear APR.

Proving that bad APR falls somewhere between tires and herpes in durability, men's basketball came in with the lowest multiyear APR, 879. That's still represents progress from 858 in 2011-12 and 866 in 2012-13 and allows basketball to proceed penalty free for the first time since the Richard Pitino-coached season of 2012-13.

Multiyear APR

Golf 1000

Women's basketball 995

Women's cross country 987

Tennis 982

Men's cross country 977

Women's outdoor track 977

Women's indoor track 975

Swimming & Diving 973

Volleyball 973

Softball 971

Men's soccer 970

Women's soccer 969

Men's outdoor track 958

Men's indoor track 956

Baseball 938

Football 933

Men's Basketball 879

2013-14 Single Year APR

Men's indoor track 1000

Women's indoor track 1000

Women's outdoor track 1000

Men's outdoor track 1000

Women's cross country 1000

Volleyball 1000

Golf 1000

Softball 1000

Women's soccer 979

Women's basketball 967

Swimming & Diving 962

Tennis 955

Football 935

Men's basketball 933

Men's Soccer 932

Baseball 931

BASEBALL

Businesses show love by showing material and money. As detailed here in the February post "Getting Dressed," the FIU athletic team Adidas loves most is baseball. No other program gets the amount of equipment under Adidas' agreement with FIU Athletics that baseball does. No other FIU head coach gets $4,000 of free product annually as FIU's baseball coach does.

According to Camp Mitch sources, baseball's love of its Adidas clothes and gear didn't extend to the bats. So FIU brought other brands along with Adidas to the plate throughout the season.

Apparently, somebody at Adidas noticed FIU's bat diversity as the Panthers battered Conference USA tournament opponents. That's not a problem unless there's a clause in the agreement between the school and the athletic wear company stating "each Sport...shall exclusively use or wear Adidas products whenever School's athletic teams are playing one of the Sports (including games and practice sessions)..." and that failure to do so constitutes a material breach of contract.

FIU swung Adidas bats at practice Wednesday and you can bet they'll do so this weekend in Coral Gables.

MONEY

USA Today's annual college athletics finances report demonstrated little of surprise beyond Oregon taking over the Total Revenue title from Texas.

Of the 230 schools ranked, FIU placed 90th in total revenue ($28,104,962), 92nd in total expenses ($27,542,910), 16th in subsidy ($22,540,365) and 36th overall, second to Eastern Michigan among FBS football schools, in percentage of total revenue that comes from subsidies (80.2%).

FORMER FOOTBALL

Click here to see the current real world job of former FIU running back Darian Mallary.

 

Weekend of Hope

This weekend at Camp Mitch will be about hope.

Not "hope" as a verb. To me, that connotates too much of dealing with things as you wish they were or as they will be if some long odds uncertainty comes through instead of dealing with things as they are. "If everything goes right this season, we'll win X games" describes sports hoping at its best.

"Hope" as a noun, on the other hand, means "a chance." That's what baseball, football and softball will be trying to give themselves or demonstrate they have starting Friday at 4 at the baseball stadium and running all the way through the finish of Sunday's 1 p.m. baseball and softball games.

Between those, at 7 p.m., the football team will try to nurture hope among its fans at the annual Spring Game. The "Friday Night Lights" promotion that starts at 6 p.m. includes schedule posters for the first 1,000 fans, a DJ, a meet-and-greet with the swimming & diving team (is there any other school, excluding Cal with Missy Franklin, who could use the swim team to draw fans to football stuff?) and all sorts of other giveaways.

Despite the running-in-place nature of spring football, there are things to be learned. Watching the 2013 Spring Game gave you that Otter-in-the-Dexter-Lake-Club feeling about the season. During last year's Spring Game, you could tell freshman quarterback Alex McGough possessed the bearing, style and enough smart decision-making that eventually Ron Turner would elevate him over incumbent E.J. Hilliard. Also obvious: running back injuries would give freshmen Alex Gardner and Napoleon Maxwell a shot at starting.

This year, the team wants to build a crowd, build hope in that crowd for 2015, build some kind of buzz, even muted buzz. Another year of dragging in the standings and in the stands by the athletic department's flagship sport puts a drag on the whole department. I'm interested to see how the inexperieneced safeties and wide receivers look as well as the offensive line. The defense, with advantages in experience and overall talent, should dominate.

Softball, Conference USA co-favorites in the preseason coaches' poll, can't get swept this weekend by C-USA best Western Kentucky or just making the conference tournament moves into sorcery-miracle category. The Panthers problem in that regard stands 5-6, Western pitcher Miranda Kramer. She's one of the best in the nation with a 0.91 earned run average, a 17-4 record and only 58 walks against 271 strikeouts. And one ace like her in softball can open up many options for a coach, especially over a doubleheader Saturday and a Sunday.

And then there's baseball, having one of those seasons when you feel like you're always spitting into the wind. The Panthers might get the eighth and final conference tournament spot by default. But if Charlotte or Old Dominion get hot for a weekend or two and FIU keeps taking one per weekend, as Richard Pryor used to say, "Cancel Christmas."

The baseball crew's also facing Hilltoppers, albeit slightly less scary. Western's Austin King, Josh Bartley and Ryan Thurston go 5.31, 5.44, 6.00 in earned run average. I expect some long games Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Conference Titles in Tennis (Maybe) & Golf (More Likely) In One Week?

To start, give junior golfer Meghan MacLaren a slap on the back for being named to Conference USA's golf All-Academic team again. MacLaren, an English major, owns a 3.68 grade point average and four Golfer of the Week awards (should've been five) from this year.

MacLaren's once again the No. 1 player on an FIU team ranked No. 56 nationally by Golfstat.com and favored to win its second conference title in three years. You'd say FIU also gets the home course advantage as host of next week's Conference USA event, but this will all go down over in Fort Myers.

The 2013 Sun Belt champions finished fourth of 13 at the C-USA event last year and MacLaren was 12th overall. This year, she's had three medalist performances and eight of FIU's 11 individual top 10s. 

A great No. 1 can get you to the podium, but it's Nos. 2 through 5 that'll put you on the top step. For FIU to get it done next week at The Verandah Club, sophomore Coralia Arias, Camila Serrano (who tied MacLaren for 12th), Katerina Krasnova and Carla Jane can't spend the week arguing with their clubs.

Despite an undefeated conference record, 5-0, FIU's seeded fifth in the conference tennis tournament that begins today and has already been moved inside to dodge rain. A win against No. 12 Southern Mississippi, which FIU spanked 5-2 last month, puts them into the quarterfinal against the Middle Tennessee State/Western Kentucky winner. A win there likely runs the Panthers into No. 1 seed, two-time defending champion and host Rice.

By the way, the Panthers took down No. 2 seed Marshall, 4-3, at Camp Mitch on Mar. 28 with wins at Nos. 1-4 singles by senior Yana Koroleva, freshman Nerma Caluk, sophomore Nina Nagode and junior Kaitlin Brozovich.

Funky note: two teams in sports identified with Florida and the number of players from Florida on the two rosters? Two -- Miami Country Day graduate Ashley Shimmel and Palm Harbor University School graduate Jasmine Wade, both golfers.

 

FIU's Commissioner's Academic Medal Winners

If you're a full-time student-athlete and bring in a 3.75 grade point average, Conference USA honors you with the Commissioner's Academic Medal. FIU had 34 such athletes for the 2014-15 school year, 10th among full Conference USA member schools (Kentucky, South Carolina and New Mexico are in the league for men's soccer only.)

Baseball: Mitchell Robinson, Zack Soria.

Men's Basketball: Kris Gulley, Hassan Hussein.

Women's Basketball: Katrina Epnere, Zsofia Labady, Nikolina Todorovic.

Women's Golf: Katerina Krasnova.

Sand Vollyeball: Anna Budinska, Morgan Crawley, Darija Sataric.

Men's Soccer: Luca Giovine, Adam Sibiski.

Women's Soccer: Ellen Crist, Johanna Volz, Ashley Westberry.

Softball: Rachel Dwyer, Dominique Grossman, Jessica Hallett, Michaela Mills.

Swimming & Diving: Klara Andersson, Valerie Inghels, Anna Jonsson.

Tennis: Giulietta Boha, Nerma Caluk, Yana Koroleva.

Men's Track & Field: William Offor.

Men's Cross Country: Orlando Rodriguez.

Women's Track & Field: Tiffani Hernandez, Celine Murton.

Volleyball: Tia Clay, Kari Peterson, Jovanna Santamaria, Anabela Sataric.

 

 

 

172 FIU Athletes Make C-USA Commissioner's Honor Roll

(Thought I posted this last night. Apparently, I only saved it. A face-down-on-the-keyboard mistake.)

A 3.0 GPA gets you on the Conference USA Commissioner's Honor Roll, which 172 FIU athletes have done this year. FIU ranks eighth most among Conference USA's full membership schools. That's an improvement after 154 and tied for 12th last year.

The names are submitted to the conference by the schools.

Baseball (16): Brandon Cody, Charles Cormier, Cody Crouse, Ian Exposito, Julius Gaines, Evan Holland, David Lee, Spencer Levine, Dominic LoBrutto, Carlos Lopez, Andres Nunez, Mitchell Robinson, Austin Rodriguez, Jack Schaaf, Eduardo Silva, Zack Soria.

Men's Basketball (3): Larry Dennis (Huh? He transferred to a junior college at midseason), Kris Gulley, Hassan Hussein.

Women's Basketball (13): Jade Cheek, Jerica Coley (Say what? Everybody's happy she's still around campus doing graduate work, but how is she counting for this year? Was somebody just throwing names in there to see if C-USA was paying attemtion?), Marita Davydova, Arielle Durant (Uh, director of basketball oerations this year, not a player), Katrina Epnere, Aajah Hawkins, Amari Hawkins, Zsofia Labady, Tynia McKinzie (dismissed from the team at midseason), Taylor Shade, Nikolina Todorovic, Ciera Wheatley, Brianna Wright. 

Football (17): Chris Ayers, Richard Burrows, Christopher Cummins, Akil Dan-Fodio, Ricky Fernandez, Chris Flaig, Adrian Francois, Cody Hodgens, Yousif Khoury, Jose Laphitzondo, Fred Porter, Anthon Samuel, Donald Senat, Yohan Soares, Delmar Taylor, Scott Wade, Cory White.

Golf (8 -- the entire team): Coralia Arias, Sophie Godley, Carla Jane, Katerina Krasnova, Meghan MacLaren, Camila Serrano, Ashley Shimmel, Jasmine Wade.

Sand Volleyball (9): Marina Boulanger, Anna Budinska, Morgan Crawley, Aren Cupp, Alexa Diaz, Alexandria Johnson, Giovanna Pasos, Darija Sataric, Tina Toghiyani.

Men's Soccer (10): Quentin Albrecht, Roberto Alterio, Luca Giovine, Marvin Hezel, Nicholas Midttun, Deshawon Nembhard, Nico Pasquariello, Adam Sibiski, Robin Spiegel, Jesse Wear.

Women's soccer (16): Shelby Bowden, Ellen Crist, Marie Egan, Cyan Jean-Baptiste, Talia McMurtrie, Ryann Ramirez, Nikki Rios, Alyssa Robinson, Ashleigh Shim, Marlena Stablein, Sara Stewart, Nevana Stojakovic, Pat Tomanon, Johanna Volz, Madlen Weinhardt, Ashley Westberry.

Softball 10): Isabelle Barnes, Rachel Dwyer, Krystal Garcia, Samantha Green, Dominique Grossman, Jessica Hallett, Corinne Jenkins, Marisa McGregor, Michaela Mills, Rebekah Sanchez.

Swimming & Diving (20): Klara Andersson, Sabrina Beaupre (she's been off the eligibility clock since the 2014 NCAA's), Jessica Chadwick, Jenny Deist, Nadia Farrugia, Valerie Inghels, Anna Jonsson, Lily Kaufmann, Maria Lopez, Jean Madison, Alex Mayhew, Melissa Moreno, Sonia Perez-Arau (oh, come on! the only C-USA swimmer to score at the 2014 NCAAs. Lazy times in ), Valeriia Popova, Rebecca Quensel, Silvia Scalia, Alaina Smith, Kayley Tepe, Courtney VanderSchaaf, Becky Wilde. 

Tennis (6): Giulietta Boha, Valentina Briceno, Nerma Caluk, Yana Koroleva, Nina Nagode, Carlotta Orlando.

Men's cross country (7): Brandon Ballard, Ronny Greenup, Andres Magliano, Eli Monzon, Leonel Pozo, Daniel Puentes, Orlando Rodriquez.

Women's cross country (4): Adrienne Gerzeny, Katarina Rodriguez, Brittany Wasserbeck, Desmika White.

Men's track (10): Dylan Cook, Pablo Espitia, Garry Louima, Tyshawn Lytle, Desmond McGill, Luka Mustafic, Daniel Neptune, Wisdom Offor, Julian Santiago, Traivon Smith.

Women's track 12): Brittany Corbett, Phillicia Fluellen, Chandra Fulwood, Adrienne Gerzeny, Chelsea Gobourne, Anesha Gordon, Anna Heinzman, Tiffani Hernandez, Sharniece King, Symone Lindsay, Celine Murton, Lexis Shields.

Volleyball: Lucia Castro, Tia Clay, Maria Coukolis, Briana Gogins, Gloria Levorin, Anja Licka, Natalie Martinez, Kristine Monforte, Kari Peterson, Jovanna Santamaria, Anabela Sataric, Tina Toghiyani (wait, she already got counted back at sand volleyball...)

 

 

 

Swim & Dive Lauded for Water & Land Achievements; Gore to Marian

FIU's Conference USA championship win last week prompted a shuffling of the CollegeSwimming.com national mid-major rankings. FIU's now No. 4 among mid-majors.

Behind them in the rankings as they were in the pool are Florida Gulf Coast at No. 5; Conference USA's second place team, Rice, dropped from No. 5 to No. 8, incongruously one spot behind the conference's third place team, Western Kentucky.

FIU's team grade point average of 3.17 put it on the College Swimming Coaches Association of America's list of Scholar All-America teams, comprised of teams with a 3.0 GPA. Earlier this week, butterflier Valerie Inghels made the C-USA All-Academic team.

 

FOOTBALL PAST

FIU life didn't go well for Jakhari Gore. While sitting out the 2012 season as a transfer from LSU, the former Columbus High running back star crashed academically in 2012-13. He got arrested on a charges of robbery and false imprisonment in late August 2013. FIU coach Ron Turner jettisoned Gore, who entered a not guilty plea before the charges were dropped.

But Gore's apparently gotten things together. He Tweeted at me today that "God is Good and blessed me with another chance Marian University!"

The school on what's called "the near northwest side" of Indianapolis started football in 2007 and plays at the NAIA level. Good for him.

Flip-Flop & A Flap

Friday, I asked Ron Turner what he wanted most in recruiting this season.

"Always offensive and defensive line, that's first and foremost," Turner replied. "That's what you want to do. Either in numbers to get your depth or to get better players."

Of this week's two flips of FIU linemen commits, offensive linemen Richerd Desir-Jones (Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas) to Florida and Richard Williams (Miramar Everglades) to FAU, only the Williams one surprised me. Jones' visit to Florida this weekend was common knowledge when Turner said this Friday while answering a question:

"We had some guys who were committed and 'I think I need to look at this school' and I said, 'Well, I'm looking elsewhere, too.' Because I want guys who want to be here and believe in what we're doing. The guys we've got do. A lot of guys in this class have a lot of other options or potential options. Not all were offered by other schools, but they've had interest and taken visits, a good chance they would've been offered. Some were offered by some pretty impressive schools. They stuck to what they wanted to do. That's a sign of character."

I thought of Desir-Jones. I also thought of Deion Eakins, a long-committed offensive guard out of Jacksonville Trinity Christian who's getting preferred walk-on whispers in his ear from Oregon. But I really thought of Desir-Jones. Did Turner expect to lose Desir-Jones so made George Constanza preemptive breakup noises?

 

The upshot is I'm looking at four offensive linemen so far in this class and two defensive linemen, both of whom might wind up on offensive line. (Fermin Silva will be an outside linebacker). Interesting how schools such as Florida and the Hurricanes have poached FIU commits in the last few weeks. 

One more thing -- Turner won't spend a scholarship on a punter or kicker coming in, but he said any new masters of the foot will have the chance to kick or punt their way onto scholarship.

Also, The Herald learned Saturday that wide receiver Fred Porter got the remainder of his scholarship for this year reinstated. So, he'll have the first semester of his graduate school paid without loans. Porter graduated in December, but was told he would no longer be on scholarship and wouldn't be back next season as a fifth-year senior.

 

Baseball Stuff Like That; Donald in the Middle

A few things before I scratch out 15 inches for Wednesday's paper on FIU baseball headed for the Conference USA tournament...

Give it up to junior catcher/first baseman Aramis Garcia and senior closer Mike Gomez, members of the Conference USA's Baseball All-Academic Team. No other school put more than one player on the team. Both are sports and fitness majors. Gomez has a 3.79 grade point average and Garcia has a 3.78.

FIU plans to have Garcia behind the plate Wednesday against Rice. He missed 12 games with a right oblique injury and returned to play first base at the end of the season-closing series at Tulane.

At the other end of the battery, FIU plans to throw freshman Chris Mourelle at Rice, according to Turtle Thomas. They didn't throw Mourelle last week against Tulane once the staff felt the chance for an at-large NCAA bid was gone and don't want to throw ace Mike Franco twice on short rest in a conference tournament they now need to win to make the NCAA tournament.

Also, Rice saw Mourelle only for three innings after Robby Kalaf took a shot off his right hand in the first inning in the third game of Rice's sweep earlier this year. Mourelle faced 16 batters, gave up five hits and only one run (it was earned).

FOOTBALL

FIU fifth-year senior Donald Senat made the 64-player spring watch list for the Dave Rimington Award, given annually to the best center in college football. 

Dave Rimington was the best center of his era, a dominating player on Nebraska's 1981 and 1982 teams, seasons that saw him become the first two-time winner of the Outland Trophy as the nation's outstanding interior lineman. Rimington didn't make All-Decade teams. He made All-Century teams. Though he was part of the 1983 NFL Draft's first round, generally considered the greatest first round ever, his seven-season NFL career never quite lived up to the hype. That hype existed for a center should tell you something by itself.

 

 

APR Stars (women's hoop, tennis) & Scrubs (men's track)

In the Academic Progress Rate reports released by the NCAA minutes ago, FIU didn't suffer any single-season disasters from 2012-13 and only men's basketball remains in the penalty zone in multi-year tracking, although football is close. That men's basketball showed a significant single season jump opened the door to the NCAA letting FIU off postseason grounding, but leaves them still facing some minor penalties -- practice reduction and limits on number of games.

Let's start with the good news. Perfect 1000 APRs for 2012-13 were attained by women's indoor & outdoor track, women's basketball, golf, tennis, cross country and men's soccer. Baseball came in with a 990.

On the low side were men's track, 897 indoors and 933 outdoor for 2012-13. Football's single season APR was 926. You hit 925, you get a nasty note from The Four-Letter Organization. You get below 900 for multiple years, time for the penalty box. Men's basketball, as previously mentioned, showed single-season hops, going from 750 to 959.

The multi-year APRs show basketball at 866, up slightly from 858. Football is at 933. Women's basketball provides FIU's zenith to the men's nadir in multi-year APR, 995, just ahead of tennis' 992.

MULTI-YEAR APRs

Women's Basketball   995

Women's Tennis   992

Women's Cross Country 987

Women's Golf  983

Swimming & Diving 982

Women's Outdoor Track 978

Women's Indoor Track 975

Men's Soccer 975

Softball 972

Women's Volleyball 968

Women's Soccer 955

Men's Cross Country 950

Baseball 948

Men's Outdoor Track 948

Men's Indoor Track 947

Football 933

Men's Baskteball 866

 

SINGLE YEAR APRs

Women's Basketball 1000

Women's Cross Country 1000

Women's Tennis 1000

Men's Soccer 1000

Women's Indoor Track 1000

Women's Outdoor Track 1000

Baseball 990

Women's Volleyball 979

Women's Soccer 976

Swimming & Diving 962

Men's Basketball 959

Softball 957

Men's Outdoor Track 933

Football 926

Men's Indoor Track 897

 

 

Jenkins All-Academic Team; Can't Spell MLS With FIU

FIU sophomore pitcher Corinne Jenkins went 15-7 with a 3.37 earned run average this season. She's also a psychology major with a 3.74 grade point average.

Which is why Jenkins made the Conference USA Softball All-Academic team.

MLS

If you're one of those who has been sold by athletic department administrators on the dream of David Beckham's Major League Soccer franchise choosing FIU as a home and injecting $255 million into the athletic department, here's the alarm buzzing, "Wake up!"

Beckham, potential co-owner Simon Fuller and lobbyist John Alschuler said during their meeting with The Herald today that MLS has told them the stadium must be downtown. Alschuler later said, "We don't want to be south, we don't want to be west, we don't want to be north."

They envision a cool, hip, yuppie crowd walking to the game from offices, condos and nearby parking lots. In other words, not what you'd get from a suburban site.

Time to find another possible source of Other People's Money for the athletic department.

Related articles

FIU Panthers enter Conference USA Softball tournament as No. 3 seed

Hoop Scholars, Softball & Hard Time

The NCAA threw out Public Recognition Awards to teams with Academic Progress Rates in the top 10 percent of their sports. One FIU team made it this year, with the APR rates based on the 2009-2013 academic years -- women's basketball.

All APR rates will be released later.

SOFTBALL

First baseman Stephanie Texiera was voted Second Team All-Conference USA and was a unanimous coaches' choice for Conference USA Freshman of the Year Award. Texeira and Gabby Spallone made the conference's All-Freshman team.

Still...how does the No. 3 seed in the conference tournament have only one player make first or second team all-conference?

One thing that wrinkled my already sun-wrinkled brow about FIU in this weekend's Conference USA softball tournament at FAU: the Panthers are busing up this afternoon for Thursday's 1:30 game against East Carolina. 

What, I thought, they're worried about getting caught on the Turnpike behind some 1983 IROC Z28 Camaro rear-ending a beige Toyota Camry and being late to the Thursday afternoon game?

No, what they're worried about is 2012 Sun Belt Tournament at FAU Redux. FIU opened against Troy in a rain-delayed game that didn't get called for the night until Letterman. The Panthers dragged back home, got to bed in the wee hours and showed up groggy to finish a 4-1 loss. After an afternoon nap, a still sonambulent FIU got dusted 9-1 by South Alabama.

So, this year, they're busing up, getting into the hotel, getting a good night's sleep, then playing.

MEN'S SOCCER

What is it with FIU athletes getting busted on weed-related charges five seconds after they finish their eligibility or degree?

Walk-on transfer Luke Bray started 10 of the 12 games he played for FIU last season, picked up no goals or assists, and three of five games in 2012. Bray has filed an affidavit for indigent status after getting busted on a felony possession charge and charged with possession with intent to distribute. His next hearing is May 29.

Funny how this might've fit under either of the headlines of the last two blog posts. Not as funny as Bray's name being removed from last year's roster on the FIU website and his bio removed once you click on his name in the 2012 roster.

 

 

Will hustle for food; MacLaren Academic All-Conference

Somebody in FIU Athletics better start raising some money.

This was brought up to me by a veteran of similar-sized athletic departments after the NCAA Legislative Council declared schools should be able to give their athletes unlimited meals or snacks in connection with games or practices.

The NCAA was embarrassed by University of Connecticut point guard and Final Four Outstanding Player Shabazz Napier saying he sometimes went to bed "starving." With the whole "should they be paid?" argument swinging away from them, this rule made for a better public relations move than saying, "Clearly, Napier needs to learn how to handle his money because, looking at some of his portly pals on the football team, there's no shortage of food available to athletes and that football team is batspit compared to the basketball team."

Anyway, this becomes another expense for any athletic department. It's a bit more onerous on a department that's near the top of the nation in relying on student fees for funding. This is in addition to the meal plan that's part of an athletic scholarship.

People think about how much extra this means when feeding the football and basketball teams. Yeah, that's no trip to Hamburger Wednesday at McDonald's, but think about everybody else getting fed. Think about track throwers and baseball players. Take a look at the softball, volleyball (sand and indoor) and soccer (either gender) teams -- not many salad-eaters there. Parents of swimmers can tell grocery bill stories that give Publix owners a Saturday night happy. 

FIU can't hit up the students again. Well, it can, but not without drawing the appropriate ridicule. No, somebody in FIU Athletics better start kissing some rings or things and getting some money from some new wallets.

Time to feed the family.

NCAA ADOPTS IT'S OWN "TOM BRADY RULE"

This new football flagable from Wednesday, according to NCAA.org...

"The rule specifically covers a scenario in which a quarterback is in a passing posture with one or both feet on the ground. In that situation, no defensive player rushing unabated can hit him forcibly at or below the knee. The defensive player also may not initiate a roll or lunge and forcibly hit the quarterback in the knee area or below."

GOLF

Sophomore Meghan MacLaren, who led FIU to the Sun Belt Conference title last year and has a 3.49 grade point average, has been named to the Conference USA Golf All-Academic team. The Conference USA championship will be Monday through Wednesday in Gulf Shores, Alabama.

FIU no longer grounded by grades; more water women;

The official Academic Progress Rates for 2012-13 won't be announced until June. But the Dean Wormers at the NCAA have seen FIU's grades and have decided there was enough APR upward movement in the season under Richard Pitino to take FIU off punishment and let the men's basketball team return to postseason play next season.

 

SWIMMING & DIVING

Johanna Gustafsdottir went back home to Iceland to rip through her native land's national meet, walking out with three firsts, two seconds and a national record in the 400 individual medley of 4:53.24. She also won the 200 freestyle with a 2:04.94 and was part of the 800 free relay winners.

FIU's 400 IM ace, Sonia Perez, was named an Honorable Mention All-American by the College Swim Coaches Association of America this week. Perez became the first FIU swimmer -- and was the only Conference USA swimmer this year -- to score at the NCAA meet, taking 13th in the 400 IM. She also swam the 200 IM and 200 backstroke at the NCAA meet before being named Conference USA's Swimmer of the Year.

 

Good News, Bad News about FIU's Commissioner's Academic Medalists

Conference USA honors those athletes with a 3.75 grade point average or better with the Commissioner's Academic Medal. These FIU athletes received that hardware:

Swimming & Diving: Klara Andersson, Anna Jonsson, Lily Kaufmann, Marie Therese Nord, Marina Ribi.

Women's Basketball: Marita Davydova, Katrina Epnere, Zsofia Labady.

Women's Soccer: Ellen Crist, Johanna Volz, Paula Zuluaga.

Sand volleyball: Morgan Crawley, Aren Cupp, Savannah Davis.

Volleyball: Jessica Egan, Anabela Sataric

Golf: Ashley Shimmel

Softball: Samantha Green

Men's Cross Country: Orlando Rodriguez.

Good news for them.

The bad news is 19 medalists represents the fewest of any full-time Conference USA school.

 

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