KNOXVILLE, TN – At the end of the first day of the 2020 CCSA Swimming & Diving Championship, the FGCU swimming & diving team (8-8-1, 4-1 CCSA) sat at the top of the team standings. The Eagles earned 230 points to lead the field, followed by Liberty (223) and UIW (196) to round out the top three.

The 230 points are the most earned by any team in the CCSA on day one of the championship. Liberty's 219 from last year's meet stood as the previous record.

Freshman diver Reese Wakefield (Guelph, Ontario/Bishop MacDonelle CHS) became the team's first individual champion of the meet, as she took home the 3m board with a final score of 310.00.

"This was a great first day," head coach Dave Rollins said. "We had a huge move-up in the 800 Free relay and a new season-best in the 200 medley. That was awesome to see. Our divers were also on fire. Congratulations to Reese for winning the title and for Delaney, Alyssa and Beau (Keene) for making the final in their first CCSA Championship. They have been so strong and fantastic teammates all year, so it's great to see hard work pay off. In addition, Natalie (Keffer) finished 11th in that event, adding more points for us."

In the first event of the day, the team of junior Petra Halmai (Dombovar, Hungary/Lanczos Kornel Secondari Grammar School), sophomore Meghan Schienvar (Holmdel, N.J./Holmdel HS), senior Elizabeth Zeiger (Cumberland, R.I./Homeschool) and freshman Kaja Reinhardt (Herdecke, Germany/Helene-Lange-Gymnasium Dortmund) laid down a 7:22.24 in the 800-yard freestyle relay, good for a second-place finish. That time was a 14-second drop from the Eagles' previous best from this season and bested third-place UIW by 1.63 seconds.

Earlier in the day, the diving prelims had seen a league-best four Eagles qualify for the 3m final, as Wakefield and her classmates Delaney Nelson (Cincinnati, OH/Ursuline Academy), Alyssa Schmidt (Winter Park, FL/Winter Park HS) and Isabeau Keene (Demorest, GA/Tallulah Falls School) all earned their spots in the eight-diver field. The final, which followed the opening relay, saw Nelson finish fifth with a score of 261.15, followed by seventh-place Schmidt (243.40) and eighth-place Keene (240.55) in addition to Wakefield's heroics. In that event alone, FGCU combined for a whopping 102 points.

The 200-yard medley relay was the day's final event. Entering with a seeded time of 1:41.45, the quartet of freshman Lucija Sulenta (Zagreb, Croatia/Gimnazija I Ekonomska Skola Benedikta Kotruljevica), Halmai, freshman Julia Rodriguez (Gainesville, FL/Buccholz High School) and sophomore Wiktoria Czarnecka (Lublin, Poland/Liceum NR 10 W Lublinie) swam a 1:40.54, good for second place. While the Liberty Flames did pick up their second relay win of the meet, the victory was not enough to overtake the Eagles for first place.

The CCSA Championships will continue on Thursday, beginning with the 10 a.m. morning prelim session. The afternoon session is slated for a 6 p.m. start and will see the finals for the 200 Free relay, the 500 Free, the 200 IM and the 50 Free.

Standings, Day One
1. FGCU – 230
2. Liberty – 223
3. UIW – 196
4. Georgia Southern – 125
5. Gardner-Webb – 104
6. Howard – 102
7. Campbell – 98
8. UNF – 94
9. UNC Asheville - 57

For complete coverage of FGCU swimming & diving, follow the Eagles on Twitter (@FGCU_WSwim), 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.

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 32-20-1 (.615) dual meet record, which includes an 11-2 (.846) mark against CCSA opponents, in his fourth season. Rollins guided FGCU to back-to-back CCSA titles (2017, 2018), as well as the program's fourth-straight title in 2018, marking the ninth championship in 10 years. 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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ABOUT FGCU
FGCU teams have combined to win an incredible 81 conference regular season and tournament titles in just 12 seasons at the Division-I level. Additionally, in just eight seasons of D-I postseason eligibility, the Eagles have had a combined 36 teams or individuals compete in NCAA championships. Seven FGCU programs have earned a top-25 national ranking in their respective sport – including both men's and women's soccer again in 2018. In 2016-17, the Green and Blue posted a department-best 6th-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 3.35 GPA in the classroom in the spring 2018 semester and has outperformed the general University undergraduate population for twenty consecutive semesters. 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.

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