Swim & Dive Makes Final Tuneups at Nebraska Dual

Friday, February 1

Lincoln, NE

6 p.m. / 11 a.m.

Rutgers University

Nebraska

Swim & Dive Makes Final Tuneups at Nebraska Dual

Jan 30 | Women's Swimming & Diving

Live Results Meet Notes

Scarlet Knights travel to the Midwest for a two-day clash with the Cornhuskers to wrap up the 2018-19 dual meet schedule.

PISCATAWAY, N.J. (Jan. 31, 2019) - Rutgers swimming and diving takes its final tuneup before championship season at Nebraska for a two-day dual meet in Lincoln on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 1-2. Friday's session is slated to begin at 6 p.m. with an 11 a.m. start on Saturday.

"Following a very competitive meet at our place last year, this should be a great matchup with Nebraska to close dual meet season," said head coach Jon Maccoll. "Once February rolls around, we expect the conditioning, techniques and strategies to be in top form. Scoring points this weekend will start to get us in the right mentality to take on the best in the Big Ten."

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STOPPA TOPS SWIMMER OF THE WEEK VOTING
Senior Francesca Stoppa was named the Big Ten Swimmer of the Week for the period ending Jan. 13. It was the Scarlet Knights' third Swimmer of the Week since joining the conference in 2014. Rutgers' last Swimmer of the Week was current senior Vera Koprivova on Nov. 23, 2016, when she was a sophomore.

It was a five-win weekend for Stoppa, who won all four individual butterfly races she entered and swam the leadoff leg in a clutch 200-yard freestyle relay win to edge out Princeton by 12 points in a dual victory on Friday. She won the 100- and 200-yard butterfly events against Princeton on Friday, and again over Princeton and Villanova during Saturday's tri-meet. She posted a 1:58.79 in the 200 on Friday, an NCAA Championships B standard and one of the fastest non-suited 200 times in the conference this season.

LOOKING FOR WIN #7
Rutgers is 6-2 in duals and have won two invitationals to start the 2018-19 season. RU won its home invitational from Nov. 28-Dec. 1 behind Vera Koprivova''s school record swim in the 200-yard backstroke, Francesca Stoppa's pool record performance in the 200-yard butterfly, and seven overall event wins.

In their final home event of the season, the Scarlet Knights topped Princeton behind 10 event victories to win their sixth dual of the year following victories over Wagner, Brown, Michigan State, Oakland and Toledo. Rutgers claimed the Justin Jennings Memorial Invitational at Colgate on Oct. 5-6 on the strength of 14 event wins, nine meet records and five pool records.

SWIM BITS
• Rutgers has 51 individual event wins as a team this season, led by junior Francesca Bertotto's 14 in the distance freestyle races and nine by Stoppa in butterfly.

• Senior Vera Koprivova's 1:52.42 in the 200-yard backstroke at the Rutgers Invitational currently ranks sixth in the NCAA and second in the Big Ten.

• Senior Francesca Stoppa's 1:56.03 in the 200-yard butterfly at the Rutgers Invitational is currently ranked 22nd in the nation and third in the Big Ten.

• Freshman Terka Grusova's 52.98 in the 100-yard backstroke at the Rutgers Invitational is currently ranked 36th in the nation and eighth in the Big Ten.

• Four Scarlet Knights (Vera Koprivova, Francesca Stoppa, Terka Grusova and Federica Greco) have posted NCAA B standard times this season. Koprivova has three (100 & 200 Back, 400 IM), Stoppa and Greco each have two (100 & 200 Fly) and Grusova has one in the 100 Back..

• Rutgers sent two swimmers to NCAA's in back-to-back years (2017 and 2018) for the first time since 2007 and 2008.

• Senior butterflyer Francesca Stoppa has made the NCAA Championships in each of the last two years. Senior backstroker Vera Koprivova qualified in 2017. Bertotto won the 2018 ECAC championship in the 500-yard freestyle.

• Bertotto, Stoppa, Koprivova and Greco all scored for the Scarlet Knights by making the finals at the 2018 Big Ten Championships.

• During the offseason, the Scarlet Knights' duo from Czech Republic – Koprivova and Grusova – scored high finishes at their country's national championship. The teammates and countrywomen finished 1-2 with Grusova winning the national title in the 100-meter backstroke over the summer.

DIVING IN
• Senior Marin Bloise found her biggest success thus far this season at the Rutgers home opener against Brown and Wagner. Bloise walked away with a 301.55 score and first place finish in the 3-meter diving portion, 28.65 points ahead of her closest competition.

• Senior Rachel Byrne picked up a victory in her final home meet, posting a season-best 287.25 in 1-meter diving and first place points against Princeton.

• Four divers have already qualified for the NCAA Zone A Championships on March 11-13 in Annapolis, Maryland - Marin Bloise (3-meter), Lauren Boone (3-meter), Rachel Byrne (1- & 3-meter) and Jenna Douglass (1-meter).

• With Class of 2018 grad Addison Walkowiak's 11th place national finish at the NCAA Championships last season, head diving coach Frederick Woodruff has coached an NCAA All-America honorable mention for three straight seasons, and four out of the last five.

• Freshman Megan Demeo edged out sophomore teammate Lauren Boone in 1-meter diving at the home tri-meet on Nov. 16 by six-tenths of a single point, scoring a 251.25 for her first career victory.

• Freshman Jenna Douglass notched her first career event victory with a first place score of 266.90 in 3-meter diving during a tri-meet sweep for Rutgers against Oakland and Toledo.

SCARLET KNIGHTS IN THE OPEN WATER
Junior Francesca Bertotto placed 10th out of the 69 finishers in the 5,000-meter (3.1 mile) at the CSCAA Open Water Championships, stopping the clock at 1:03:27.23. Bertotto, Rutgers' 500-yard freestyle record holder, finished just 11 seconds off the national champion pace. Rutgers finished with a seventh place team finish.

BEYOND THE BANKS
The Rutgers Aquatic Center, along with the lanes and wells across the country, will be a breeding ground for Olympic and National Team dreams. Rutgers' roster is made up of swimmers and divers from the United States, Italy, Czech Republic, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand.

SWIMMING ABROAD
In mid-April, the Scarlet Knights will travel to Stockholm, Sweden to compete against international competition and close out their season at the Malmsten Swim Open Stockholm. In past years the competition has hosted numerous National, European and Olympic champions.

FOR THE B1G
Senior Francesca Stoppa and freshman Terka Grusova contributed to a decisive 251-102 victory for the B1G in the inaugural Big Ten/ACC Swimming & Diving Challenge at Purdue on Nov. 11. Stoppa accounted for three Big Ten points with her fastest swim of the year in the 200-yard butterfly, placing third in an NCAA B standard time of 1:57.19. Grusova posted her fastest time of the year in the 100-yard backstroke at 53.97 seconds, good for a seventh place finish in a race that had six NCAA B cut times. The Rutgers rookie was just three-hundredths of a second away from posting a cut of her own.

UP NEXT
The Scarlet Knights taper and prep for the 2019 Big Ten Championships from Feb. 20-23 in Bloomington, Indiana.