FGCU S&D vs Liberty/Illinois State/Tulane Recap

 In its first meet of 2020, the FGCU swimming & diving team (7-5-1, 4-1 CCSA) finished with a 1-1-1 mark against Illinois State, Tulane and Liberty on Saturday at the FGCU Aquatics Complex. The Eagles downed the Red Birds 183-35, earned a 112-112 draw against Tulane and were defeated by CCSA rival Liberty by a score of 131-93.

"There were a lot of good things that happened today and it was great to see Joely (Merriman) get a chance to compete for the first time for us," head coach Dave Rollins said. "The girls were really tough today. Petra (Halmai) was as competitive as she has been throughout the whole season and it's always fun watching her compete. I never know what to expect coming off the holidays, but it was great to see everyone back and racing again. We have plenty of time before CCSAs when we will see Liberty again."

In the first event of the afternoon, the Green and Blue quartet of freshman Julia Rodriguez, junior Petra Halmai, senior Cassidy Fry and sophomore Wiktoria Czarnecka earned a second-place finish in the 200-yard medley relay. The team beat out third-place Tulane (1-5, 0-0 American) by almost a full second.

Halmai then found individual success in the 400 IM, as she picked up a second-place finish. She also earned crucial points for the Eagles in the 100-yard butterfly (second place) and the 100 Breast (second place).

Czarnecka earned the team's only first-place finish of the day in a swimming event as she took home the 50 Free. She bested Liberty (7-2, 3-0 CCSA) senior Colleen Donlin by a little over 0.3 seconds en route to the win. The sophomore also scored points for FGCU in the 100 Free, where her time of 53.35 was good for a fourth-place finish.

The team also picked up early points in the 3m dive, as a trio of Eagle freshmen scored in the event. Reese Wakefield earned her fourth title on the 3m board with a score of 264.00. Delaney Nelson and Isabeau Keene rounded out the scoring with third and fourth place finishes to add 13 points to the team's total.

While Halmai paced the Eagles in the 100 Fly, she was followed closely by Fry and Rodriguez who finished third and fourth, respectively. Rodriguez earned her highest individual finish of the day in the 100-yard backstroke, where she touched the wall second.

Seniors Elizabeth White and Emily Glinecke finished within 0.3 seconds of each other in the 100 Breast. White's time of 1:07.09 earned her a fifth-place finish. She and Halmai combined for five points, while Glinecke finished just outside of the scoring cut-off in sixth place.

In the last swimming event of the day, the team of Czarnecka, Fry, sophomore Joely Merriman and freshman Kaja Reinhardt finished fourth in the 400-yard freestyle relay. While Liberty had secured its win over FGCU at this point, Tulane only held a slight edge over the home team. Merriman made her debut after transferring from Arizona State.

The final score of the meet was determined by the 1m diving event. Luckily for the Eagles, the trio of Wakefield, Nelson and Keene delivered and finished first, third and fourth like they did on the 3m board. Wakefield's win in the final event was the third of her rookie campaign.

"The divers continued to do a phenomenal job," Rollins commented. "It's been a long time since we've had such a strong group of divers. To have them perform as well as they did was exciting to see and they kept us in it against Tulane."

Though the Eagles did drop their first conference match of the season by falling to Liberty, the team was able to close in on the Tulane squad that finished fourth at the Phill Hansel Invitational. At that invite, the Green Wave outscored FGCU by 162 points. FGCU also earned its largest margin of victory of the 2019-20 season, besting Illinois State (1-2, 0-1 Valley) by 148 points.

Up Next:
FGCU will remain at the Nest and prepare to host Stony Brook (4-4, 0-1 America East) in an 11 a.m. meet on Saturday, Jan. 11. The competition against the SeaWolves will be held on Staff Appreciation Day at the FGCU Aquatics Complex and fans are encouraged to participate in a white out.