Swimming and diving wins third straight C-USA championship  

By Joel Delgado ’12 MS ’17 

For the third straight year, the FIU swimming and diving team returned home from the Conference USA Championships as conference champions, finishing with 922.5 points – the fourth highest score in conference history.

The Panthers registered 15 first-place finishes and broke 10 school records over the course of the four-day event in Atlanta, with junior Kyna Pereira leading the way with four gold medals to capture C-USA Swimmer of the Meet honors.

Heading into the final day of the event Feb. 25 with a comfortable 140-point lead over the rest of the competition, the Panthers won an additional six events on Saturday and added to their lead, finishing 173.5 points ahead of second-place Rice.

The Panthers put an exclamation point on their performance by setting a school record in the 400 free relay with the team of Jennifer Deist, Letizia Bertelli and 2016 Olympic Games participant Naomi Ruele posting a time of 3:17.15. The time was good enough to make the NCAA Championships A cut, helping the trio become the first relay team in school history to earn that distinction.

Head Coach Randy Horner, who took over the program in 2010, was tapped C-USA Coach of the Year for the third year in a row.

To read more about FIU swimming and diving, go to FIUSports.com.