FORT MYERS, Fla. – Back home after claiming its first conference victory on the road at UNF, the FGCU swimming & diving team (1-1, 1-0 CCSA) will now host FIU (0-0, 0-0 C-USA) this Saturday, Jan. 23 at the FGCU Aquatics Center. The meet is scheduled for a 3:30 p.m. start and will be open to 50 spectators. All attendees are required to wear masks at all times and must adhere to CDC guidelines, which include social distancing.
Earlier this season, FGCU faced off against both FIU and Georgia Southern in the FGCU Invitational, which was hosted at The Nest back in November. Following three days of competition, the Green & Blue's 1,420 points earned the team a first-place finish. FIU came in second with a score of 994 and Georgia Southern's 712 landed the team third overall.
The Eagles are coming off a weekend in which they claimed their first dual win of the 2020-21 season, downing UNF by a score of 201-61. The team collected first-place finishes in each of the meet's 14 events and swept four different races throughout the day.
Sophomore
Anna Hogan (Louisville, Ky./Dupont Manual School), who earned top-four finishes in each of the events that she competed in against Miami and UNF, was named Co-CCSA Swimmer of the Week for the first time in her career on Tuesday afternoon.
Hogan, who won both the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke events during the competition with the Ospreys, is the second Green & Blue swimmer to receive the honor this year, as senior
Petra Halmai (Dombovar, Hungary/Lanczos Kornel Secondari Grammar School) was tabbed following the FGCU Invitational. Halmai, an All-American from the 2019-20 season, swept the weekly awards that week with the help of sophomore
Reese Wakefield (Guelph, Ontario/Bishop Macdonelle CHS).
Before making the trip to Fort Myers, the Panthers will face off against Miami on Friday afternoon in Coral Gables. It will be the swimmers' second competition of the season, as FIU has only competed in the FGCU Invitational so far. The divers took on Florida on Jan. 17 and nearly swept all three events, picking up wins on both the 1m and 3m boards.
This weekend's dual will be the 15th in the history between the two programs. FGCU currently owns an 11-3 all-time advantage over the Panthers, though FIU has won back-to-back meets against the Eagles. In the 13 years the teams have been competing, FGCU has averaged 153.68 points per meet against FIU.
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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 33-21-1 (.609) dual meet record, which includes an 12-2 (.857) 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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#FEEDFGCU
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ABOUT FGCU
FGCU teams have combined to win an incredible 82 conference regular season and tournament titles in just 13 seasons at the Division I level. Additionally, in just nine seasons of D-I postseason eligibility, the Eagles have had a combined 38 teams or individuals compete in NCAA championships. Seven FGCU programs have earned a top-25 national ranking in their respective sport – including women's basketball (No. 24, 2019-20) and both men's soccer (2018, 2019) and women's soccer (2018) as three of the most recent. In 2016-17, the Green and Blue posted a department-best sixth-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 (APR) in their sport and have had the highest percentage of teams so honored from these two groups over each of the past three years. FGCU also collectively earned a record 3.46 GPA in the classroom in the spring 2020 semester and has outperformed the general University undergraduate population for 22 consecutive semesters. The 2019 Fall and 2020 Spring semesters each saw another milestone reached as all 15 programs achieved a 3.0-or-higher team GPA. 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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