Courtesy: Missouri State Athletics
CARBONDALE, Ill. – The MSU swimming and diving teams picked up a split in their two-day dual meet at Southern Illinois on Saturday afternoon.
The MSU women were victorious as they defeated the Salukis 195-158.
“The ladies raced tough today,” head coach Dave Collins said. “The pool record relay and sweep of the 1000 freestyle to start really gave us some nice momentum.
The MSU men had some impressive performances but fell to SIU 176-173.
“Although we came up short in total points on the men’s side, we had some really nice performances we can build off of leading into the MAC championships,” Collins added.
MSU got its day started by setting a new pool record in the 200 medley relay as Libby Howell, Yuliya Zubina, Sami Roemer and Anna Miller swam a blistering 1:40.90. In the men’s 200 medley relay, Robbie Hill, Michael Hampel, Tyler Lewis and A.J. Huskey led the Bears to a second-place finish (1:31.25).
In the 1000 freestyle, it was all MSU as the women went 1-2-3 with Libby Howell taking first (10:09.45), Vera Margula swimming a personal best 10:09.63 to finish second and Sam Hietpas finishing third (10:17.05). Dylan Moffatt continued his strong performance in the men’s 1000 freestyle as he won the event in 9:17.06 while Pawel Krawczyk followed in second (9:29.41).
In the women’s 50 freestyle, Anna Miller won the event in dominant fashion blowing away the field with a time of 22.81.
Madison Brown swam a 56.93 to record a third-place finish in the 100 backstroke. On the men’s side, Robbie Hill finished runner-up in the event with a time of 51.23.
In the women’s 200 breaststroke Alessia Puleo finished second (2:17.93) while Yuliya Zubina finished third (2:20.02). Hampel was victorious in men’s 200 breaststroke action winning the event in 2:00.41 while teammate Jimmy Doromal followed in second (2:03.38).
Miller picked up another win in the 100 butterfly (55.09) as she edged out teammate Ulyana Zubina by nearly a second. The Bears also went 1-2 on the men’s side as Krawczyk won the event in 49.58 and Huskey followed in second with a time of 49.99.
In the women’s 200 freestyle Grace Beahan, took second (1:52.47) while Anna Lucas took third (1:52.99). On the men’s side, Arthur Cury took second after swimming a 1:39.98.
Libby Howell kept her winning ways going in the 400 IM as she dominated the field while winning the event with a time of 4:24.75. In the men’s race, Dylan Moffatt swam a 3:54.09 in the event to take first overall.
The final swimming event of the day was the 400 freestyle relay. The MSU women took second as Roemer, Jordan Wenner, Lucas and Ulyana Zubina combined to swim a 3:28.96. The men then replicated that performance themselves as Krawczyk, Robbie Hill, Cury and Huskey swam a 3:03.03 to garner a second-place finish.
In diving action, Ashley Yarbrough was the star for the Bears as she won both the 1-meter (265.19) and 3-meter (290.33) boards. For the men Michael Claunch posted an impressive 299.17 to win the 1-meter competition while John David Spence scored a 295.95 on the 3-meter board to win that event.
“I really like our energy, we are just going to need each athlete to really challenge themselves the rest of the season,” Collins acknowledged.
The Swim Bears will be back in action March 19-20, with the men traveling to Xavier and the women competing at Indiana State. Start time for the events have yet to be announced.