The University of Missouri men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams opened their 2014-15 seasons with the ninth Annual Show-Me Showdown this afternoon. The Tigers hosted Drury, Lindenwood, Maryville (women only), Missouri S&T (men only), Missouri State, Saint Louis University, Truman State, Washington University and William Jewell.
Missouri kicked things off with solid swims in the 200 medley relay. The women’s A team of Hannah Stevens, Abby Duncan, Dani Barbiea, and Anna Patterson cruised to a 1:41.64 win with a 2.5-second margin over second place Drury (1:44.09). Mizzou’s B, C, and D teams followed Drury. In the men’s race, the Tigers’ A relay (Sam Tierney, Igor Kozlovskij, Andrew Sansoucie, and Michael Chadwick – 1:29.95) touched less than a second ahead of the B squad (1:30.75), with Drury (1:30.90) just behind them in third.
Missouri Freshmen Rachel Hayden (1:52.19) and Erin Metzger-Seymour (1:52.98) led the field in the women’s 200 free, while senior Eegan Groome (1:40.46) took the men’s title. The next three finishers all touched within a half-second of Groome.
The Tigers, led by sophomore Katharine Ross (2:04.03) finished 1-2-3 in the women’s 200 IM. Missouri State’s Paul Le finished the men’s 200 IM 2.3 seconds in front of the field with 1:48.47. Mizzou took the next three spots.
Sophomore Patterson of Mizzou won the 50 free in 23.45. The only other women under 24 seconds were Drury’s Wen Xu (23.49) and Katya Rudenko (23.67). Mizzou junior Matthew Margritier won the men’s sprint in 20.09. Daniel Rzadkowski and Rodrigo Caceres Acosta of Drury touched next in 20.70 and 20.77, respectively. Three more were under 23 seconds, including Lindenwood’s Serghei Golban.
The Tigers’ senior sprinter Barbiea took the women’s 100 fly in 55.15, in front of teammate Metzger-Seymour (56.51) and Saint Louis’s Morgan Peterson (57.48). The men’s race also saw two Tigers and a Billiken in the lead: Sansoucie (49.93), Mack Darragh (49.94), and SLU’s Brendan Hulseman (50.21).
Freshman Hayden doubled with a 100 free win (51.23). Drury’s Xu was runner-up (51.35). The men’s 100 free saw two Tigers out front (Chadwick, 44.62, and Margritier, 44.99), with Missouri State, Drury, and Missouri S&T filling out the top eight.
Freshman Sharli Brady of Mizzou won the 500 in 5:01.94 ahead of Lindenwood’s Alecia McGillivray (5:04.81) and Dora Kiss (5:06.29) of Missouri State. Daniel Graviss of Mizzou (4:33.90) and Miguel Davila of Missouri State (4:34.80) had a nice battle for the men’s 500 crown; Lindenwood’s Sylwester Borowicz-Skoneczny was just behind them.
The Mizzou women’s A team (Barbiea, Patterson, Victoria Trost, and Ross) won the 200 free relay with 1:35.98. Drury and Truman State followed in 1:38.54 and 1:39.28. On the men’s side it was Mizzou A (Margritier, Chadwick, Tierney, and Christian Aragona – 1:21.30) followed by Drury (1:24.13), Mizzou B (1:24.61), and Wash U (1:25.69).
Drury’s Rudenko got the win in the women’s 100 back with 55.42, nearly a second in front of Mizzou’s Stevens. Missouri State’s Le won his second event with a 48.89 in the men’s 100 back. The Tigers’ Carter Griffin (49.45) just out-touched a pair of Lindenwood backstrokers: Golban (49.70) and Jakub Jonczyk (49.76).
Missouri’s Ross won the women’s 100 breast (1:01.74) ahead of teammates Duncan (1:02.55) and Lauren Stoeckle (1:04.68). On the men’s side, Kacper Pelczynski (55.21) and Banjo Borja (56.25) were 1-3, while the Tigers’ Tierney (56.08) took second.
Mizzou took the final event with the women’s 400 free relay (Stevens, Hayden, Metzger-Seymour, and Brady) touching in 3:28.24, and the men’s (Kozlovskij, Alex Glogoza, Groome, and Stephen Sobczak) in 3:05.42.