The 2017 Conference USA Swimming & Diving Championships are officially underway, as day one of the four-day event has come to a close. Two-time defending league champion FIU, along with Marshall and Rice, highlighted the two-event opening night, each reaching the podium twice
FIU took an early lead on the rest of the pack with gold medals in both the 200-yard medley relay and 800-yard freestyle relay. The 200 medley relay team comprised of sophomore Naomi Ruele, freshman Carita Luukkanen, junior Letizia Bertelli and senior Jenny Deist took home first place with a time of 1:38.18. In the 800 yard freestyle relay, FIU junior Skye Carey, freshman Megan Bowen, freshman Berta Triola and junior Kyna Pereira dominated the event, finishing nearly five seconds faster than second place with a winning time of 7:09.02.
Rice, the 2016 runner-ups and previous three-time champions (2011, 2013, 2014) also got off to a hot start, snagging second-place finishes in both the 200-yard medley relay (1:38.74) and the 800-yard freestyle relay (7:14.86). Marshall joined FIU and Rice on the podium finishing third in both relays.
After an abbreviated opening night of competition, FIU leads all teams with 80 points. Rice sits in second with 68, followed closely behind by Marshall with 64. North Texas and Old Dominion did not see the podium on the first night but are not far from contention with 60 and 56 points respectively. Florida Atlantic rounds out the team scores with 26 points.
Following the championships competition, the FIU 400-yard freestyle relay team etched their names into the school record books after claiming FIU's first-ever relay NCAA A Standard time. Bertelli, Marie Lauridsen, Ruele and Deist swam a 3:15.23 in the event time trials and qualified for the NCAA Championships in the event (March 15-18).
The C-USA Swimming and Diving Championships will resume Thursday, February 23, with time trials starting at 10:30 a.m. ET. Day two finals will begin at 6 p.m. ET streamed live on ESPN3 and on the WatchESPN app. For more information about the event, check out the C-USA Swimming and Diving Championship central page with live results, streaming info and more.
