Dec. 2, 2010
The Vanderbilt women’s swim team will take its talents to South Beach to compete against the University of Miami on Saturday at 10 a.m. CT. The meet will take place outdoors at the Norman Whitten Student Union Pool.
“Miami is a really good squad and really well coached,” head coach Jeremy Organ said. “They are going to be competitive in every event and give us a challenge for every race. If the girls step up we will have the opportunity to go out and have some great swims.”
This will be the second meeting between the two schools since Vanderbilt restarted its swim program in 2006. The last meeting took place on January 11, 2008 and marked the first time Vanderbilt hosted a home dual-meet in 15 yeas. The Commodores fell to the Hurricanes 186-74 at the Centennial Sportsplex but saw competitive races from two current student-athletes. Jennifer Molchan finished second in the 500-yard freestyle in a time of 5:14.32 and third in the 200-yard freestyle in a time of 1:55.44. Molchan also took second in the 100-yard freestyle while Anna Fargo finished sixth.
Miami holds a 4-1 record in dual-meets this season and is coming off a fourth-place finish at the Georgia Tech Invite. The Hurricanes opened the season with a third-place finish at the All Florida Invitational.
The Commodores are coming off a second-place finish at the Western Kentucky Invitational where they set season-best times in 17 events. Jess Eccher led the way by finishing second in the 200-yard backstroke in a time of 2:02.96, a quarter of a second behind the 22-year-old school record set by Wendy Deacon. Sophomore Amy Salce had a good showing in the 200-yard and 500-yard freestyle while Michelle Williamson swam season-best times in the 1000-yard free and the 400-yard IM.
The meet will be the last of the fall season before the team hits the books to prepare for finals week. The Commodores will return home January 8 to host the University of Kansas.
“This is one of those tough weeks where everyone is getting ready for exams and there are a lot of other things going on,” Organ said. “The team has to focus their attention on swimming against Miami and if they do that they will be successful.
A full recap and results can be found Saturday afternoon on vucommodores.com.
Make sure to check out the Vanderbilt swim team blog, Swimmers’ Stories, to get all the inside information from the student-athletes.
