2015 Missouri Valley Conference Women’s Championships
- February 18th-21st, 2015
- Dr. Edward Shea Natatorium on the Southern Illinois University campus
- Defending Champions: Missouri State (results)
- Live results: Meet Mobile
- Championship Central (Including live stream links)
The Missouri State Bears came into day 2 of the 2015 Missouri Valley Conference Championship meet with a narrow lead, and while they maintained that with early success, they weren’t able to pull away from the diving-heavy host team from Southern Illinois.
Scores after day 2:
1. Missouri State -280
2. Southern Illinois – 272
3. Illinois State – 193
4. Evansville – 191
5. Northern Iowa – 153
6. Arkansas – Little Rock – 100
The Bears began the day by winning each of the first two individual events. That started with a 4:44.41 from Dora Kiss in the women’s 500 free. She used a good middle 200 to open up a lead on Southern Illinois’ runner-up Kelsie Walker, who ultimately finished in 4:46.07
There was a pretty steep drop-off in times after that, but the host Salukis went 2-3-4-6 in this race to score major points, despite the Missouri State wins in both the A and B finals.
The 2nd race of the night again went the way of the Bears, with Lauren Pavel swimming a 2:02.84 to win the 200 IM. Illinois State’s Courtney Taylor took 2nd in 2:03.87, but this time it was Missouri State’s depth that showed with three of the top four spots going their way to take the scoring lead back.
In the proverbial “rubber match,” neither team came out on top; rather it was Illinois State’s Marissa Yontz who won in 23.10, followed by Evansville’s Danielle Freeman (23.30) and Missouri State’s Kate Gately (23.32).
That 50 free would give the Bears a slight lead, but Southern Illinois’ diving group, which is the best in the conference, went big with a 1-2 finish from Cheri Zhang and Esther Chen on the 1-meter. Zhang, a springboard specialist, was 3rd on the 3-meter at NCAA’s last year and 11th on the 1-meter.
The session closed with the 200 free relay, where the Purple Aces became the third different team to win a relay at this meet. They clocked a 1:33.06 on the strength of a 22.61 anchor from Michelle Tipton,who was able to pull past Missouri State’s anchor Sydney Zupan (23.68) for the win. Missouri State took 2nd in 1:33.39.
Friday should be another back-and-forth day in the team battle; while Missouri State should extend their lead early, watch for the Salukis to battle back led by top-seeded 100 backstroker Sarah James and their divers on the 3 meter springboard.
