Swimming and Diving Travels to Coral Gables to Face Miami, Houston
FORT MYERS, Fla. — The FGCU swimming and diving team heads across Alligator Alley for tri-meet action at 3 p.m. Friday against Miami (Fla.) and Houston.
The meet will take place at the Whitten Center Pool, hosted by the University of Miami. Live results can be viewed on the Meet Mobile App.
FGCU enters Friday’s meet 4-1 overall and 2-1 in the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association (CCSA). Miami is 3-3 and 1-1 in the ACC, while Houston is 2-1 overall.
FGCU is 8-6 all-time against the Hurricanes and 0-1 against the Cougars. The Green & Blue has dropped its last five meets facing Miami, with the last win (180-120) on Jan. 20, 2018. The lone meeting against Houston was in 2019, with the Cougars earning a 204-142 victory at FGCU.
Last time in the pool, the Eagles scored a dual-meet home victory over Eastern Michigan, 162-124. FGCU won 10 of the 16 events, sweeping the 100-yard backstroke, the 1-meter diving and 3-meter diving events.
Junior FGCU diver Kylie Palian (Aurora, Ohio/Aurora HS) earned her first career CCSA Women’s Diver of the Week recognition on Tuesday by winning the 3m diving event with a season-best performance of 276.00, besting all competitors by 16 points. She followed up her first-place effort with a silver medal in the 1m, also posting a season-best score of 242.00.
Palian and her fellow Eagles will now be going up against the 2022 ACC Women’s Diver of the Year and NCAA National Champion Mia Vallee for the Hurricanes.
In individual events, the Green & Blue has captured 22 gold medals this season, 25 total counting relay action. Cameron Kuriger (Columbus, Ohio/Olentangy HS) leads all Eagles in first-place podium finishes this season with eight (including relays), five individual gold medals.
Kuriger has also posted the fifth-fastest 200 fly (1:59.63) and the ninth fastest 100 fly (53.94) time in program history this season. Both marks still stand as the fastest across the conference this year.
Teammate Emma Hixenbaugh (Louisville, Ky./Ballard HS) continues to hold the CCSA’s season best time of 1:58.90 in the 200 back.
For complete coverage of FGCU swimming & diving, follow the Eagles on Twitter (@FGCU_WSwimDive), Instagram (@FGCU_WSwimDive) and online at www.FGCUAthletics.com. You can also sign up to have news on FGCU swimming & diving or other programs delivered directly to your inbox by visiting www.fgcuathletics.com/email.
Order of Events:
200 Medley Relay
1000 Free
200 Free
100 Back
100 Breast
200 Fly
50 Free
3m Diving
100 Free
200 Back
200 Breast
500 Free
100 Fly
1m Diving
200 IM
400 Free Relay
HEAD COACH DAVE ROLLINS
Head coach Dave Rollins is only the second coach in program history. He was hired Sept. 1, 2016 and owns a 39-27-1 (.582) dual meet record, which includes a 16-3 (.842) mark against CCSA opponents, in his seventh season. Rollins guided FGCU to back-to-back CCSA titles (2017, 2018), marking the ninth championship in 10 years before winning the 10th championship in program history in 2021. In addition, he has been awarded CCSA Coach of the Year in two of his seasons at the helm. Previously, Rollins was the associate head men’s swimming coach at The Ohio State University. Rollins brings over a decade of coaching experience to The Nest, which includes helping to develop Olympians, NCAA Champions and All-Americans, along with multiple conference champions. A native of Brockton, Mass., he was a standout collegiate swimmer in his own right and was inducted into the University of Arizona’s Hall of Fame in 2017, as a nine-time NCAA All-American, national champion, school record holder and team captain.
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FGCU teams have combined to win an incredible 94 conference regular season and tournament titles in just 15-plus seasons at the Division I level. Additionally, in just 11-plus seasons of D-I postseason eligibility, the Eagles have had a combined 47 teams or individuals compete in NCAA championships. In 2022, the men’s golf team became the first program to earn an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament. Eight FGCU programs have earned a top-25 national ranking in their respective sport – including women’s basketball (No. 20, 2021-22 and No. 25 in 2022-23) beach volleyball (No. 20, 2022) and both men’s soccer (2018, 2019) and women’s soccer (2018) as four of the most recent. In 2016-17, the Green & Blue posted a department-best sixth-place finish in the DI-AAA Learfield Directors’ Cup and top-100 showing nationally, ahead of several Power-5 and FBS institutions. In 2018-19, the Eagles had an ASUN and state of Florida best seven teams earn the NCAA’s Public Recognition Award for their Academic Progress Rate in their sport. FGCU also collectively earned a record 3.66 GPA in the classroom in the fall 2022 semester and has outperformed the general University undergraduate population for 27 consecutive semesters. The past seven semesters (Fall 2019 – Fall 2022) saw another milestone reached as all 15 programs achieved a 3.0-or-higher cumulative team GPA. The Eagles also served an all-time high 7,200 volunteer hours in 2017 – being recognized as one of two runners-up for the inaugural NACDA Community Service Award presented by the Fiesta Bowl.
—FGCUATHLETICS.COM—
