The FGCU swimming and diving team (2-4) took down NAIA SCAD (0-4) 200-34, but fell to ACC foes in Georgia Tech (3-1), 159-84, and were narrowly edged by Miami (3-1), 121-119, Friday afternoon at the McAuley Aquatic Center in Atlanta.
"We took it on the chin today, no doubt about it," said head coach Dave Rollins. "We had some areas where we performed really well and getting wins from seniors Hannah Burdge, Gracie Redding, and Christina Elmgreen was amazing. Not to mention the 200 free relay to end the meet, are all definite high notes but there were a lot of areas where we can improve."
In the first event of the evening, the 400-yard medley relay, the quartet of senior Doris Eichhorn, sophomore Petra Halmai, junior Cassidy Fry and sophomore Rebecca Moynihan produced a swim of 3:51.75 for a third-place finish.
Meanwhile, the team of freshman Kellie Fischer, junior Emily Glinecke, senior Christina Kaas Elmgreen and freshman Wiktoria Czarnecka finished fifth (3:55.06).
Senior Hannah Burdge gave the Eagles a huge boost in the 200 free as she placed second with a time of 1:53.07 – season-best time.
It didn't take long for FGCU to snag a top-finish as senior Gracie Redding downed the 50 free field, touching out in 23.40, another season-best mark for the Eagles. Czarnecka rounded out the top-5 as the newcomer etched a time of 24.37
In the 200 IM, the Green and Blue put three swimmers in the top-10 as Halmai (5th), Elmgreen (6th), and Eichhorn (9th) rounded the list, before transitioning into the diving portion.
On the 1-meter board, sophomore Megan Wakefield led the Eagles placing sixth with a score of 206.40 as sophomore Melissa Novak, junior Natalie Keffer and senior Margot Kessler finished eighth, ninth and 10th, respectively.
Elmgreen produced FGCU's second overall title of the afternoon, taking home the 200 fly title with a swim of 2:02.85 while Moynihan nearly missed out on the top spot in the 100 free as the New Zealand native marked a time of 51.42. Burdge (51.67) and Redding (52.12) were right behind their teammate placing third and fourth, respectively.
This time on the 3-meter board, Wakefield placed third with a score of 259.75 to give the Eagles some momentum going into the final two events. In the 200 breast, a trio of Eagles finished in the top-10, led by Halmai with a third-place outing.
FGCU ended the meet on a strong note capturing the 200 free relay over Georgia Tech and Miami as Redding, Burdge, Moynihan and Czarnecka touched out in 1:34.45 for the victory – currently the FGCU 200 free relay team is ranked 17th in the country after today's meet.
"We have an opportunity to learn from these moments," stated Rollins. "No one likes to lose. So how do we respond to it? We have possibly our toughest meet tomorrow against Auburn. They are a phenomenal team, very well coached and deep. It's our opportunity to either give into the high level of competition or compete. The team did a great job supporting one another today which we love to see. Now we get to take that team spirit and support into a whole new environment. I designed this meet schedule to challenge us and to learn how to compete against higher levels of competition. We have an opportunity to do that tomorrow."
UP NEXT
FGCU is back in the pool tomorrow when it travels to Auburn, Ala., to face the Tigers (0-0) at 12 p.m.
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