The Miami Hurricanes women’s swimming and diving team faced off against Florida State on Friday of Homecoming Weekend at the Whitten Center Pool, ultimately falling to their rival school, 155-145.
“Great atmosphere at the pool. Great swimming and diving. There was a lot of good energy from the ‘Canes. Miami did a great job of representing the U,” head coach Andy Kershaw said.
“Unfortunately, we came up just short, but the fact that we were so close was a great step for our program,” Kershaw continued. “It was a lot closer than it has been in recent years. We’re not quite there yet. We know we’ve got more work to do. It was a close meet.”
Miami’s swimmers started the meet off on a high note, winning the first three events. The ‘A’ team of swimmers placed first, with Jacey Hinton, Tara Vovk, Giulia Carvalho and Zorry Mason leading the way. They finished with a time of 1:40.69 in the 200-yard medley relay to open the events.
On top of the opener, the ‘Canes earned both first and second place finishes in the 1000-yard freestyle by seasoned swimmers Adrianna Cera (10:13.07) and Aino Otava (10:15.68), respectively.
“It was so good to see how the team swam in the races and the freedom they swam them with. This is one of the things we’ve been working on at practice,” Kershaw said. “We practice a lot and do a lot of thinking on details at practice and then at the meet the team can be free and that’s what they did. I’m really proud of that.”
The ‘Canes also had many other swimmers place first in various events throughout the day. Cera additionally won the 500-yard freestyle event with a time of 4:58.49. Freshman Jane Fitzgerald placed first in the 200-yard freestyle at 1:50.74, while Vovk placed first individually in the 100-yard breaststroke at 1:01.63.
Carvalho and Jacey both finished back-to-back in the 50-yard freestyle with times of 23.29 and 23.47, respectively.
Miami won both diving events with Emma Gullstrand placing first in the one-meter and three-meter dives.
Junior Mia Vallée placed second in each event. Freshman Kate Sommerstad also placed second in the 200-yard backstroke event with a time of 2:01.99. Vovk continued a strong performance in the meet, with second place finishes in both the 200-yard backstroke (2:16.59) and the 200-yard IM (2:03.82).
“I’m really proud of the alumni coming out to the meet. It was a great experience and atmosphere,” Kershaw said.
The ‘Canes won their last event of the meet in the 200-yard freestyle relay with their ‘A’ team of Carvalho, Hana Spaulding, Sumstrand and Hinton. The team finished with a time of 1:32.71.
“We’ve got at least one more chance to face Florida State in the spring season at ACC’s. Hats off to the Seminoles. We took them a little bit by surprise coming out of the gate, but they did what good teams do and responded by holding us off,” Kershaw said. “Very happy with our performance today, but still looking forward to what’s ahead.”
Miami’s next matchup will be in Dallas against Southern Methodist University at the SMU Invite on Nov. 17.