The Hurricanes opened the 2022-23 season at the Whitten Center Pool on an overcast Saturday morning in Coral Gables, Fla. Pitted against fellow Miami-based school, Florida International, the Hurricanes eagerly awaited their first official competition of the year.
Miami dominated both in the pool and through the air as they bested the Panthers, 199-100.
To begin the day, the swimming portion of the meet was controlled by UM. In the 200-yard medley, freshman Celina Kuehne, graduate student Tara Vovk, redshirt senior Zorry Mason and sophomore Jacey Hinton finished in first, followed by freshman Vivian Vanrenterghem, junior Emma Sundstrand, sophomore Giulia Carvalho and freshman Hana Spaulding, who finished in second.
For individual events, redshirt junior Adrianna Cera finished first in the 1,000-yard freestyle with a blistering time of 10:21.09. Senior captain Aino Otava finished second with a time of 10:23:16 and freshman Kate Sommerstad was third at 10:27.71, rounding out a Miami sweep of the podium.
Freshman Jane Fitzgerald began her collegiate career with a second-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle.
The Hurricanes took a one-two finish in the 100-yard backstroke with Mason winning the race with a time of 56.39 and Kuehne closely trailing at 56.94.
Hinton dominated the short-form freestyles, winning both the 50 and 100-yard races with times of 23.26 and 51.01. Miami took the following three places in the 100-yard freestyle as Fitzgerald (51.99), Spaulding (52.47) and Barr (52.55) followed respectively behind Hinton.
The 200-yard backstroke was another sweep of the podium as freshman Sarah Sensenbrenner won her first career race and was followed by Sommerstad and Kuehne.
Cera won her second race of the day in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:02.20 and Carvalho finished first in the 100-yard butterfly at 56.01.
To end the meet on a decisive note, the Hurricanes also won the 400-yard freestyle relay as Fitzgerald, Cera, Spaulding and Hinton rushed to a 3:25.93 finish.
“It was a good meet today; lots of good energy,” head swimming coach Andy Kershaw said to Miami Athletics. “The things I love about this is it really gives us a chance to evaluate the things we’re doing well and what we can improve on. There’s things to improve on, but we did a lot of things really well.”
For the diving portion of the event, reigning National Collegiate Athletic AssociationNational Champion Mia Vallée was the top point scorer of the day. The junior diver would win the three-meter springboard with a total of 308.9 and finish second in the one-meter springboard with a score of 307.13. She was topped by fellow teammate Emma Gullstrand in the one-meter springboard and grabbed second behind Vallée in the three-meter springboard.
The Hurricanes return to action Oct. 7-8 as they participate in the SMU Classic in Dallas.
“The SMU Classic is certainly very special. It’s also challenging because we have a very limited travel squad, so I’m looking forward to going to that competition, but also have some mixed emotions, since we’re going to have some people here in Miami,” Kershaw said.