AQUATIC NOTEBOOK, Issue 102: University of Miami Dominates Indian River State College

University of Miami’s women’s swimming and diving team dominated Indian River State College for a convincing 157-83 victory Friday afternoon at the Norman A. Whitten University Center Pool in Coral Gables.

The Hurricanes won 11 of 13 women’s events.

SOFLO’s Dana Hatic was third in the 200-yard individual medley in 2:10.46 and third in the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:05.62.

Indian River State College brought its men’s swim team to go for qualifying times since the Hurricanes have only men’s divers.

UM swept the women’s diving titles while Sam Dorman swept the men’s 1- and 3-meter springboard titles.

In another college meet, Florida Gulf Coast’s women’s team improved to 5-1 in dual meets after defeating Boston College, 188-103, and Maine, 168-123 in Chestnut Hill, Mass.

Gators Lead After Day One

University of Florida leads Michigan, 156-102, and Stanford, 145-111, after the opening day of a tri-meet Friday at Canham Natatorium in Ann Arbor, Mich.

The Gators won four of the six morning events and three events in the afternoon, all long course events.

Sophomore Elizabeth Beisel won two events, the 400-meter freestyle in 4:14.76 and 400-meter individual medley in 4:43.01, a seven-second margin of victory. She was the only Gator swimmer to win two events.

Stanford broke a 16-year-old pool record in the 200-yard freestyle relay in 1:45.00 with Andi Murez, Maddy Schaefer, Betsy Webb and Sam Woodward, breaking a Michigan record set in 1995.

The tri-meet concludes on Saturday with all short course events in one session.

Indiana, SOFLO’s Schwab Compete In Michigan

In a non-scoring, off-event meet against Michigan and Texas in Ann Arbor, Mich. Friday night, SOFLO’s Nick Schwab was seventh in the 600-yard freestyle in 5:36.79 and 18^th in the 300-yard freestyle in

2:44.54.

Michigan will host Texas and Indiana again on Saturday in a double dual meet.  

Ian Thorpe Makes Debut At FINA World Cup

Looking nervous as if it was his first meet, Aussie Ian Thorpe got back into the competitive pool on Friday at the FINA World Cup in Singapore.

After a five-year layoff from the sport, Thorpe was sixth in the 100-meter individual medley prelims in 56.74 and seventh in the finals in 56.33.

“It is for me probably more of an important milestone that I’m at my first competition I’ve started off here,” said the five-time Olympic champion and former world record holder. “It hasn’t been too bad. I’m not embarrassed yet and I’m still smiling.

“It’s been good to get back and get into a feel. This seems really familiar to me, but I have no idea what I am doing.”

South African teenager Chad Le Clos won three events and Sweden’s Therese Alshammar won two events on opening night.

Le Clos won the 400-meter individual medley in 4:04.16, his 11^th gold medal of the series, 200-meter

butterfly in 1:51.05 and 100-meter individual medley in 53.06. Le Clos has totaled $26,000 since the series started.

Alshammar won the 100-meter butterfly in 56.03 for her ninth gold medal of the series. American teenager Jasmin Tosky was sixth in 58.81. Aussie Libby Trickett, also competing in her first international finals since coming out of retirement, was eighth in 59.30 and was sixth in the 50-meter freestyle in 25.16. Alshammar also won the 50-meter freestyle in 23.98 and has earned $16,000 so far in the series.

“The whole point of these meets is not necessarily to win or to swim incredibly fast times, obviously that’s not reasonable to expect,” said Trickett, whose last international meet was in 2009. “Hopefully, over the course of these three meets I’ll be able to get faster and faster and if I can learn from that race, I’ll be happy. I was just happy to reach the final. It’s a really positive race tonight.”

Other individual winners were:

Jessica Pengelly of South Africa, 800-meter freestyle, 8:22.05.

Aussie Cameron McEvoy, 100-meter freestyle, 47.33.

Aussie Blair Evans, 200-meter freestyle, 1:55.48.

Aussie Christian Sprenger out-touched countryman Brenton Rickard to win the 50-meter breaststroke, 26.67-26.83.

Kim Hye of Korea, women’s 100-meter breaststroke in 1:05.78.

Jeremy Stravius of France, 100-meter backstroke in 51.80.

Aussie Rachel Goh, 50-meter backstroke in 26.73.

Korea’s Choi Hye Ra, 200-meter individual medley in 2:08.40.

Aussie David McKeon, 400-meter freestyle in 3:42.82.

Japan’s Naoya Tomita, 200-meter breaststroke in 2:04.93.

Alexianne Castel of France, 200-meter backstroke in 2:04.85.

Jason Dunford of Kenya, 50-meter butterfly in 22.92.

The two-day meet ends Saturday night.

Former FGC Swimmer Rhi Jeffrey Makes U.S. Trials

Former high school state champion and record holder Rhi Jeffrey, who grew up swimming in the Florida Gold Coast, and 2004 Olympic gold medalist on the 800-meter freestyle, has qualified for the 2012 U.S. Olympic trials in Omaha, Neb.

Jeffrey, an Atlantic High School alum, qualified in the 100-meter freestyle in 57.17 at a meet in West Auckland, New Zealand, under the 57.19 qualifying cut. She also swam 2:04.67 in the 200-meter freestyle. Jeffrey lives and trains in New Zealand.

Sharon Robb can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.