Swimcloud

Florida Gulf Coast Tops North Florida

The No. 18 FGCU swimming & diving team notched its first conference win of the season after defeating UNF by a final score of 180-91 at the Semmes Aquatic Center in Jacksonville, Fla., on Saturday afternoon. The Green and Blue touched the pads first in 14 of 15 events.

"We had a good day of racing," said FGCU head coach Neal Studd. "We mixed some things up with the girls in some cases, but they had fun with it and swam well. We're looking forward to getting back in the pool as we host Notre Dame next weekend."

The Eagles finished in the top three spots in the 200 medley relay with the quartet of Sandra Wilk (Lexington, Ky./Paul Laurence Dunbar HS), Taylor Ballard (Brandon, Miss./Brandon HS), Katie Latham (Deal, Kent, United Kingdom/Sir Roger Manwood's School) and Rebecca DeRogatis (Fort Lauderdale, Fla./Indian River/Cardinal Gibbons HS) winning the event in 1:47.71. To cap the day off, the 200 freestyle relay of Kristen Jamison (Tucson, Ariz./Arizona/Catalina Foothills HS), Lani Cabrera (Bridgetown, Barbados/St. Ursala's Secondary School), DeRogatis and Sara Hamilton (Stonehaven, Scotland/Mackie Academy) also finished first in their respective event in a time of 1:39.14.

Individually, Cabrera got the day started with a season-best performance in the 1000 freestyle. She won the race in a time of 10:21.21, finishing nearly 21 seconds before her nearest competitor in teammate Alexis Simpson (Naples, Fla./Gulf Coast HS). Latham also turned in a season-best performance in the 100 IM after touching the pads in 57.73 seconds and finishing four seconds ahead of the field. Her time in the event was also good for a FGCU program record.

Prior to contributing in the 200 freestyle relay victory, Hamilton recorded a pair of individual wins as she finished first in both the 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle in times of 24.63 seconds and 52.63 seconds, respectively. Junior Hannah Soutar (Edinburg, Scotland/ Broughton HS) and freshman Kiley Eble (Cleveland, Ohio/Gilmour Academy) also won multiple races in the dual meet. Soutar won both the 100 breaststroke (1:07.13) and 200 IM (2:10.08), while Eble touched first in the 100 backstroke (1:00.50) and 100 breaststroke (59.10) to earn her first collegiate swimming victories.

Fellow freshman Melissa Marinheiro (Davie, Fla./West Broward HS), Sarah Ubele (Tyngsboro, Mass./Tyngsboro HS) and Ballard also earned their first individual victories as a collegiate student-athlete with wins in the 500 freestyle (5:03.09), 200 backstroke (2:08.81) and 200 breaststroke (2:25.03), respectively. Additionally, sophomore Christina Herfurth (Greenacres, Fla.John I. Leonard HS) won the 200 butterfly after touching the pads in 2:07.38.

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