Liberty Travels to Florida to Take on FIU
10/27/2022 2:30:16 PM | Women's Swimming & Diving
The Liberty swimming & diving team will head to the Sunshine State this weekend, taking on eight-time defending Conference USA champion FIU, Friday and Saturday at Biscayne Bay Aquatic Center in Miami, Fla.
Team Notes
• This will be the first time this season that Liberty has had both its swimmers and divers at the same meet. On Oct. 1, Liberty defeated Campbell 141-116 at a season-opening dual meet in Buies Creek, N.C. The team’s divers compete at a meet with ECU and Richmond, Oct. 8 in Greenville, N.C.
• Hosting for the third time, Liberty claimed its fourth CCSA Championship title in a row and fifth in program history in 2022. The Lady Flames won with 1,830.5 points, defeating second-place FGCU by 302.5 points. It was the third-largest winning margin in meet history.
• The following week, FIU claimed its eighth straight C-USA Championship, a meet that was also hosted at Liberty Natatorium.
• 13th-year Head Coach Jake Shellenberger has led the Lady Flames from the program’s inception. He has posted a 121-35 dual-meet record, being named CCSA Women’s Swimming Coach of the Year four times (2012, 2014, 2019, 2022). His teams have gone 64-15 all-time against CCSA competition.
• Last year at the CCSA Championships, the Lady Flames registered 26 podium finishes and nine event victories, to go along with four NCAA B cuts, four NCAA Zone Qualifying scores and one program record.
• Andrew Helmich led the Lady Flames’ divers to much success during the 2021-22 season, being named CCSA Women’s Diving Coach of the Year. Sophomore Maddie Freece was named CCSA Women’s Diver of the Year. Freece and Lauren Chennault both earned podium finishes on both boards at the 2022 CCSA Championships.
• Three Lady Flames received CSCAA Individual Scholar All-America honors last season, in Maddie Freece (honorable mention), Abbie Shaw (honorable mention) and Sydney Stricklin (honorable mention).
• Liberty placed three athletes on the 2022 VaSID All-State University Division Women’s Swimming & Diving team. Maddie Freece became Liberty’s first-ever first team All-State performer, while Lauren Chennault and Jessica Schellenboom were both named to the second team.
• A total of 10 current Lady Flames have posted CCSA podium finishes in their career, led by seven from Eva Suggs. Jessica Schellenboom and Chloe Harris have posted five podium finishes each. Maddie Freece (4), Olivia Robinson (3), Abby Strohmeier (3), Abbie Shaw (2), Sydney Stricklin (2), Grace Isaacs (1) and Genna Joyce (1), have all podiumed as well.
Student-Athlete Notes
• Junior Maddie Freece was named CCSA Women’s Diver of the Year as both a freshman and sophomore. She was tabbed CCSA Diver of the Week on Oct. 11. Freece was named the 2022 Co-Most Outstanding Diver of the CCSA Championship Meet, winning one-meter diving with a program-record score of 320.75 while finishing third in three-meter, scoring 305.90. Just two years into her career, she already has three conference individual titles and four CCSA podium finishes. The sophomore went on to compete at the NCAA Zone A Diving Championships, finishing 17th on three-meter and 25th on one-meter.
• Senior Olivia Robinson, the 2019 VaSID State Rookie Diver of the Year, has posted three CCSA podium finishes in her career, including third place on three-meter in 2020. She holds Liberty’s record for platform diving (229.58), a discipline where she placed 15th at the NCAA Zone Championships in both 2019 and 2020. Robinson returns for her fifth year.
• Senior Eva Suggs, the 2020 Most Outstanding Female Newcomer of the CCSA Meet, posted three podium finishes as a freshman and two each of the last two years. She has won three straight CCSA 200 freestyle titles, leading a 1-2-3 Liberty podium sweep all three times. Suggs currently ranks third in program history in the 200 freestyle (1:47.82).
• Junior Chloe Harris has totaled five podium finishes in her career after placing top three in all three events last year. She earned her first career CCSA individual-event victory last year, claiming the 200 butterfly. Harris finished second in the 400 IM and third in the 200 IM at the 2022 CCSA Championships. Harris holds the top time in the CCSA in both the 200 fly (2:04.44) and 200 IM (2:06.37) this season
• Sophomore Sydney Stricklin was the fifth Lady Flame in the last six years to be named Most Outstanding Freshman of the CCSA Championships. She came from behind to upset reigning CCSA champion Tori Czarnecka in the 100 free last year, winning in lifetime-best, NCAA B cut time of 49.48. Stricklin also finished second in the CCSA 100 fly in 54.49. She enterd the season ranked third in program history in the 100 freestyle.
• Junior Abbie Shaw, in her first year after transferring from Kentucky, won both the 100 (53.93) and 200 (1:55.13) backstroke at the 2022 CCSA Championships. That came after Liberty’s Payton Keiner swept both backstroke events at the conference meet each of the previous three seasons. Shaw holds the CCSA’s best time this season in the 50 back (25.61) and 200 back (2:02.39).
• Senior Jessica Schellenboom earned her fifth career CCSA medal, finishing second in the 200 breaststroke in NCAA B cut time of 2:12.81. Her fourth-place time of 1:01.45 in the 100 breaststroke would have finished top three at every CCSA Championship before last year. Schellenboom is ranked second in program history in the 200 breaststroke and third in 100 breaststroke.
• Sophomore Grace Isaacs won the CCSA title in the 400 IM as a freshman in 2022. She is currently ranked third in program history in the 400 IM (4:17.31).
Matchup Highlights
• Liberty and FIU will be meeting for the first time. The Lady Flames are 14-11 all-time in dual meets held in the state of Florida. The last time Liberty competed in Florida was Jan. 4, 2020, sweeping FGCU, Tulane and Illinois State in a quad meet hosted by FGCU.
• FIU holds an 0-1 record this season, falling to Miami on Oct. 1. The Panthers took first place at the TYR Fall Classic, Oct. 8.
• The Panthers won their eighth straight Conference USA title this spring and are in their first season as members of the American Athletic Conference.
• Two-time Olympian Maha Gouda (Egypt) leads FIU’s divers, as she has earned All-America honors during her career. Sophomore Christie Chue finished 14th overall in the 200 breaststroke at the 2022 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships, with a program-record 2:08.27. Chue also set FIU’s 100 breaststroke record (59.86) at last year’s NCAA meet.
• Last year, FIU swept C-USA Swimmer (Christie Chue), Diver (Maha Gouda) and Newcomer of the Year (Mia Zahab) honors. Gouda is a four-time C-USA Diver of the Year honoree.
Up Next
Liberty will compete in the state of Arkansas for the first time, taking on the Arkansas Razorbacks, Nov. 4 in Fayetteville, Ark.
