Florida International Wins Record 6th Consecutive C-USA Title with Record Score

Conference USA – Women

• Wednesday, February 26 – Saturday, February 29
• Georgia Tech Aquatics Center, Atlanta, GA (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Florida International (5x) (results)
• Live results (coming soon)
• Live Video
• Championship Central
• Full Results

FINAL TEAM SCORES

1. Florida International – 1044.5
2. Rice – 889.5
3. Florida Atlantic – 453
4. Marshall – 365.5
5. North Texas – 328
6. Old Dominion – 323.5

The Florida International Panthers broke two records with their C-USA title win tonight. The Panthers are now the first team to win 6 consecutive C-USA titles, and their score of 1044.5 is the highest score of any C-USA team champion.

Rice won the first event of the night, when senior Claire Therien swimming a 16:36.78 in the mile. Therien won the event with a 16:28.62 last year.

FIU continued to dominate the diving events, posting a 1-2-3-4-5 finish. Sophomore Maha Gouda won the platform title convincingly, scoring a total of 311.90 points, topping the field by 37 points. FIU’s Rachel Foord, Mandy Song, Britanny Haskell, and Kaitlyn Fredericks took the next 4 spots respectively.

Two FIU freshmen won events on the final day of the meet. Jasmine Nocentini won the 100 free with a 48.93, completing a sweep of the sprint free events. Nocentini won the 50 free on the 2nd day of the meet. She used her speed advantage to take the race out the fastest in the field, splitting 23.48 on the first 50. The other member of the FIU sprint free duo, Lamija Medosevic, finished 4th with a 49.84. Rice senior Kate Nezelek was the runner-up in 49.23, with Marshall junior Darby Coles taking 3rd with a 49.44.

Another Panther freshman, Delaine Goll won the 200 breast in a tight race with senior teammate Taylor Grabenhorst. Grabenhorst took the race out the fastest, splitting 29.67 on the first 50, compared to 30.23 for Goll. Grabenhorst continued to out-split Goll on the middle 100 of the race, where she split 1:08.00 (33.59/34.41), while Goll was 1:08.33 (33.60/34.73). Goll won the race thanks to a 34.18 on the final 50, while Grabenhorst faded with a 35.22. Goll clocked a final time of 2:12.74, with Grabenhorst right behind in 2:12.89.

Stephanie Hussey, an FIU junior, picked up another title on the meet, winning the 200 fly with a 1:58.15. Hussey ran down Lindsay Mathys (Rice) and Marta Cano (Rice) on the final 50, splitting 30.38 to Mathys’ 31.30, and Cano’s 31.26. Mathys ended up in 2nd with a 1:58.43, and Cano was 3rd in 1:58.54. Julia Miranda, a Panther junior, won a tight 4-way race in the 200 back. Miranda came home in 30.00, moving ahead of Marshall’s Jordyn O’Dell (30.40), Old Dominion’s Jacklyn VandePoel (30.80), and Rice’s Ellery Parish (30.80) to win the race. Miranda clocked a 1:58.47, with O’Dell taking 2nd in 1:58.65, VandePoel coming in 3rd with a 1:58.66, and Parish took 4th with a 1:58.81.

The Panthers capped off the meet with a win in the final event – the 400 free relay. FIU won a narrow race with Rice, finishing in 3:19.48 to Rice’s 3:19.61. Rice led the field until the final leg of the race, with lead-off Kate Nezelek swimming a 49.64 to Jasmine Nocentini‘s 49.67 for FIU. The teams then had the exact same split on the 2nd leg, with FIU’s Helga Fodor and Rice’s Becca Evans both splitting 50.37. Marta Cano then opened up a significant lead for Rice, splitting 49.51 on the 3rd leg, compared to FIU’s Julia Miranda (50.49). With a little over a 1 second lead, Rice anchor Lindsay Mathys dove in splitting 50.09, but FIU anchor Lamija Medosevic split 48.95, getting into the finish first.