For the second straight week, the FGCU women’s swimming and diving team (9-1, 3-0 CCSA) claimed the CCSA Swimmer of the Week title when Lani Cabrera was chosen by the conference office on Tuesday afternoon. Cabrera helped guide the Eagles to a convincing victory over Nebraska on Saturday morning.
“I’m really excited for Lani,” head coach Neal Studd said. “So many weekends she has been good but either a teammate or someone else got the award. So I know she is going to be really happy to finally get her first one!”
Cabrera (Barbados/St. Ursala’s Secondary School) picked up the first of her two distance wins in the 1000 yard freestyle with a time of 10:21.13. She would also go on to win the 500 yard free with a time of 5:00.19 against the Big Ten opponent. The Eagles went on to win 10 of 11 events to best Nebraska by a score of 126-77.
The junior swam at the 2014 FINA World Swimming Championships last month and put forth a record breaking performance. Cabrera posted a time of 2:04.10 in the 200-meter Freestyle which broke her own Barbados national record of 2:06.34 which was set at the 2012 World Championships in Istanbul.
Cabrera would reach the finals in each of her two events with her top performance coming in the 200 Free. She was unable to compete in the 800-meter Free due to illness. With the 2014 calendar year coming to a close she now ranks 394th in the Swimming/World FINA top 500 in the 800 LCM Free and is the only Barbadian swimmer ranked in the top 500 in any event.
Cabrera entered the championships coming off of a stellar weekend at the Georgia Tech Invite where she placed ninth in the 1650 Free with a time of 16:51.83 and 16th overall in the 200 yard Free with a time of 1:50.28. She will be competing in the 200 Free, 400 Free, and 800 Free at the World Championships Short Course.
Two years ago, as a freshman she placed 12th out of 21 competitors in the 800-yard freestyle with a time of 8:57.56. She broke her own record of 9:00.09, which she set earlier that year in at the Southern Sectionals in Orlando, Fla. Her five national records for Barbados are in the 200-yard free (2:04.10), 400-yard free (4:23.31), 1500-yard free (17:16.87) and 400-yard IM (5:14.52).
As a sophomore Cabrera garnered CCSA All-Conference honors winning the 1,650 Freestyle in a career-best 16:36.63 and placed third at the conference meet in the 500 Freestyle in a career-best 4:49.88. She recorded a career-best 24.88 in the 50 free against FIU and clocked two career-highs at the Georgia Tech Invite with a 51.52 in the 100 free and a 4:49.72 in the 500 free. She swam another personal best against Miami finishing the 1000 free in 10:14.59.
LAST TIME OUT
FGCU dove in and rolled to three victories last Saturday, one of which was a convincing 217-77 result over defending CCSA Conference champion Liberty. Eagles would win 14 of 16 events led by All-Americans Toussaint and Svensson who each took home four victories (two individually, two relays).
CONFERENCE HONOR QUEENS
The Eagles have earned nine CCSA weekly honors this season. FGCU swept the first wave of CCSA weekly honors on Oct. 7 with Svensson named Swimmer of the Week and Collins Diver of the Week following their success at the season-opening All Florida Invite. Svensson continued on to earn another Swimmer of the Week title on Oct. 21 after three first-place touches in FGCU’s 175-120 defeat of Incarnate Word. She would pick up a third a few weeks ago. Collins, along with Yee Wong swept the awards last week.
UP NEXT
The Eagles will be off until Jan. 24 when they will travel to Miami for a date with the Panthers of FIU. The meet is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. The following weekend, FGCU will welcome in-state rival Florida State to the FGCU Aquatics Complex Jan. 30-31.
For complete coverage of FGCU women’s swimming and diving, follow us on Twitter @FGCU_WSWIM and visit www.FGCUAthletics.com where full recaps and results will be available at the end of the meet.
FGCU is led by Neal Studd, who has garnered four CCSA Coach of the Year awards, won five CCSA Championships (2009-13) and guided the Eagles to a 25-1 CCSA all-time record since FGCU started its program in 2007. In just three years of postseason eligibility, Studd has coached NCAA Championship Meet qualifiers and competitors each of the three years, with 2014 yielding the best results to date as the Eagles claimed 32nd place and produced two CSCAA All-America honorees.