The Scarlet Knights of Rutgers University tore through Miami, Florida, knocking off the Miami Hurricanes and Tulane Green Wave in their 2015 opener.
The Scarlet Knights were led by the tough trio of Joanna Wu, Greta Leberfinger and Morgan Pfaff, who combined for 8 total wins on the day.
The first of those wins came in the 200 medley relay, where the three teamed up with Sarah Coyne to go 1:46.12. That was led by Wu’s 26.92 backstroke and Coyne’s 23.67 freestyle, the best of the field in their respective strokes.
Also of note from that race – Miami star My Fridell was a field-best 25.23 on the fly leg, though she only swam that race and a 50 free over the course of the meet.
Miami took the next two events with young swimmers, as sophomore Cameron Davis took the 1000 (10:18.81) and freshman Julie Suarez won the 200 free (1:53.78).
But then the Rutgers trio made their first devastating run. First the junior Wu won the 100 back in 56.51. Then Leberfinger, a senior, took the 100 breast in 1:03.99. And finally, Pfaff, a junior like Wu, rolled to the 200 fly title, going 2:03.56 to just beat out Miami’s Angela Algee by a tenth.
The pendulum swung back to Miami for two races. Senior Heather Arseth won the 50 free in 24.31, just eking out the win over Tulane’s Mia Schachter (24.40) and Rutgers’ Wu (24.48). Then Cheyenne Cousineau won her first of two diving events on the night, scoring 302.15 on 1-meter.
Schachter struck back in the 100 free, though, taking Tulane’s only win of the night with a dominant 51.66.
But by that point, the three Scarlet Knights were rested up and ready for another pass, and this time they put the meet just about out of hand.
The 200 back saw Wu and Pfaff join forces, with Wu winning in 2:01.40 and Pfaff contributing a 2:05.31 for a 1-2 punch. Then Leberfinger piled on, winning the 200 breast with a 2:18.19.
Miami’s Davis jumped back into the hunt, winning her second race with a 5:03.37 in the 500, but after that Pfaff was right back in the pool, winning the 100 fly with a 56.48. That narrowly touched out Miami’s Algee by .03.
Cousineau won 3-meter diving for Miami (318.55 points), but Leberfinger closed the door for Rutgers with a 4:30.49 win in the 400 IM.
Miami and Tulane went 1-2 in the 400 free relay – Heather Arseth split 51.64 for the winning Miami relay, which went 3:29.42 – but it wasn’t enough to change the final scores.
Rutgers wound up taking a 164-134 win over Miami and a 183-117 win over Tulane. Meanwhile Miami topped Tulane 167-128.
Rutgers now returns home to take on Penn State, it’s first official Big Ten dual meet since joining the conference over the summer. That meet takes place Friday. Tulane also heads home, and hosts North Texas on Saturday, January 24th. Miami also takes this coming weekend off before heading to Virginia Tech to battle the H2Okies, Georgia Tech and UNC-Wilmington.
No men’s team, pretty pathetic. That should have been a requisite for getting into the Big 10.
Not having a men’s team doesn’t make a women’s program pathetic. The championship meets aren’t held together so they are run as separate sports by the conference. Also, Illinois doesn’t have a men’s program, should they be excluded from the conference too? Maryland cut both teams and they are still in the Big 10. As much as I wish Rutgers still had a men’s program, there’s no need to look down on the women’s program because of it.