Swimming & Diving Opens Home Season Versus FAU

The FIU swimming&diving team opened its home campaign at the Bay Vista Aquatic Center as the Panthers put up their best performance of the season but fell short, as FAU defeated FIU, 143-96.

FIU hosted a Think Pink event at the meet, donning pink tank tops and hair ribbons, and then took part in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure on Saturday as part of a weekend set aside for cancer awareness.

The Panthers opened the meet with a season-best time for the 400 medley relay as the foursome of sophomore Elly James, junior Erin Pavlick, junior Yesica Rojas and sophomore freshman Mariangela Macchiavello touched in 4:07.00 to take second place.

Freshman Kayla Derr and sophomore Vicnan Torres followed up that performance in the 1000 free, taking second and third place, respectively, as Derr touched in 11:00.10 and Torres finished in 11:02.08.

Freshman Kelly Grace, sophomore Caroline Foster and freshman Kelly Boyd then took over the 50 free race, as Grace touched in 26.36 seconds for second-place finish and Foster and Boyd tied for third place with equal marks of 26.73.

Macchiavello turned in FIU's top performance in the 200 IM with a second-place finish (2:14.70) and later turned in another second-place performance in the 100 free (55.22).

The diving events saw freshman Jamie Stinson take first place on the 3-meter board with a score of 234.15 and finish fourth on the 1-meter board with a mark of 195.30.

James then took second in the 200 back (2:12.86) before the 500 free saw FIU sweep the top three spots as Derr took first (5:20.89), Smith took second (5:23.25) and sophomore Kariann Stevens took third (5:27.34).

The Panthers will return to action on Saturday, Oct. 24, when they play host to Florida Gulf Coast at Bay Vista Aquatic Center on FIU's Biscayne Bay Campus. The meet is set to begin at 11 a.m