In a meet with a higher cause, the Florida State women topped the Florida Gulf Coast women 189-109 in a battle between the #2 and #3 best teams in the state this year. The meet was the designated “Paint it Pink” meet for this season, as swimmers and divers donned as much pink as they could to raise awareness for breast cancer.
Both teams swam well in the event, despite Florida State winning 14 of 16 events.
“I thought we were good,” FSU head coach Frank Bradley said. “We’ve been tough with the training this week and I thought the ladies did a good job.”
FGCU head coach Neil Studd echo’d those sentiments after his team put up some season-bests. “I was very proud of how our girls competed today. We had some very fast swims and big time drops from last week. FSU swam very well for the win, but I am delighted at how my team is improving.”
The 200 medley relay, where the Eagles are hoping for their first NCAA relay bid this season, was a tight one. The two teams were almost dead-even, until ACC Champion Tiffany Oliver pulled the Seminoles away to a 1:42.62, ahead of FGCU’s 1:42.97. FGCU is very confident in their first three legs, but are still working out their anchor situation for the medleys.
Oliver had a sharp meet against very good competition. She won the 50 free in 23.09, ahead of Emma Svensson’s 23.45, and broke 50 seconds for the first time this season to win the 100 free in 49.78, again ahead of Svensson who went 51.00 for 3rd place.
Florida State now has the two fastest 50 and 100 freestylers in the ACC this year. Junior Kaitlyn Dressel leads the way in both, though in this meet Oliver beat her in the 100 (Dressel took 2nd in 50.02), and Dressel also won the 200 free in 1:51.39.
In 2nd behind Dressel in that 200 was Madison Jacobi, just minutes after taking a wire-to-wire win in the 1000 in 9:53.39. Jacobi would later win the 500 free in 4:53.11 for a double victory.
The two victories for the Eagles came in the backstroke races, which is where they’re both the strongest and the deepest. In the 100, that win was for the aforementioned Svensson, who won the 100 back in 55.48. She was joined in the winners’ circle by freshman teammate Kira Toussaint, who took the 200 in 2:00.89. Toussaint, who’s a short course national backstroke record holder in her native Netherlands, is really settling into Yards and could be tough for the Eagles this year.
Other winners on the day:
- Sami Pochowski took the 100 breaststroke in 1:02.40, followed by FGCU’s Evita Leter in 2nd in 1:03.84
- Julia Henkel from Florida State won the 200 fly handily in 2:02.34.
Full results weren’t immediately available, but can be compiled from the two press releases here and here.