FGCU S&D vs Florida Recap

The FGCU women's swimming (0-1) and diving team welcomed in-state foe Florida (3-0) for the first time to The Nest and battled from start to finish, ultimately dropping the season opener, 219-79, Saturday afternoon at the FGCU Aquatics Complex.

"Thank you to everyone who came to support us today," said head coach Dave Rollins. "Despite the end result, our team chemistry and support was phenomenal. Their belief in one another and competitive drive never changed. We competed well and definitely learned a few things that we can work on. We are in a great spot to start the season and are excited for next week!"

As Rollins alluded to, despite the result, the Eagle's competitive drive helped them place a swimmer and diver in the top-3 of nearly each of the 16 events held. In the first event of the day, the quartet of senior Doris Eichhorn, sophomore Petra Halmai, junior Cassidy Fry and senior Hannah Burdge placed second in the 200 medley, touching out in 1:45.76 as they were narrowly edged by UF's time of 1:44.15.

Halmai recorded a trio of top-3 finishes, placing second overall in the 100 breast (1:05.03) and also in the 200 breast (2:19.51). The Hungarian then went on to touch the pads in a time of 2:07.26 in the 200 individual medley (IM) for third place.

Senior Christina Kaas Elmgreen produced a pair of second-place finishes for the Eagles, first in the 200 fly with a time of 2:02.68 and followed it up in the 100 fly touching out in 56.52 seconds. In addition, junior Elizabeth Zeiger claimed second in the 500 free (5:04.40) as well as the 200 IM (2:06.82).

Other notable times include senior Gracie Redding coming up one second short of her season best last year in the 50 free with a time of 23.55 seconds this afternoon, while Eichhorn placed third in the 100 backstroke with a swim of 57.45 seconds.

In the diving portion of the meet, sophomore Melissa Novak's score of 258.75 on the 1-meter dive gave her a third overall finish as she turned a second-place result on the 3-meter dive with a score of 290.77.

Fellow sophomore Megan Wakefield also scored points for the Green and Blue in the 1-meter (246.75) and the 3-meter (246.30).

Up Next:
FGCU will travel across Alligator Alley for the TYR Classic hosted by FIU next Friday, Oct. 5 at 1 p.m. and will then welcome the Panthers and UNF the following day at noon for dual meets. The matchup against the Ospreys will be the first of three conference matchup set for this year.