Press Release courtesy of Indiana State Athletics.
The Indiana State women’s swimming and diving team opened the 2017-2018 season today (Sept. 30) vs. Missouri Valley Conference opponent Illinois State. The Sycamores fell to the Redbirds 185 to 114.
Despite the loss the Sycamores competed strong, posting numerous high placing finishes throughout the meet.
“All in all for our first step into our second season we obviously really focused on the process and coming into this meet I knew this opponent was going to be strong, and ready to start their season with a win and they came out on fire. The first couple events were tough for us, but when we got a win under our belt we were fine,” said head coach Matt Leach.
Indiana State started off the day with a third place finish in the 200 yard medley relay. However, they quickly bounced back as Blanca Saez-Illobre posted a second place finish in the 1000 freestyle with a time of 10:38.44.
Later in the meet Saez-Illobre would add another second place finish for the Sycamores in the 200 yard breaststroke.
The Sycamores continued to swim strong building momentum throughout the day.
Kendall Hansen posted a second place finish in the 100 backstroke with a 59.12 and then later followed with an impressive first place finish in the 200 yard backstroke and a time of 2:05.92.
Other returners who swam strong were Jacquie Price and Alex Malmborg. Price provided a first place finish in the 100 yard butterfly and a time of 58.53, while Malmborg added a first place finish of her own in the 50 freestyle.
Multiple new faces to the Sycamores roster provided promising performances in the season opener.
Most notably coming from Martina Marks, the junior transfer. Marks gave the Sycamores three first place finishes in her debut sporting the blue and white. First in the 200 butterfly (2:11.46), next in the 100 yard freestyle (54.31) and lastly in the 200 IM (2:11.98).
Two other Sycamores made strong debuts as well. Marlene Pavlu Lewin placed third in the 100 backstroke and freshman Megan Schade came in third in the 100 butterfly and fourth in the 200 breaststroke.
“Being a young team and a young program we had to battle throughout the meet and have those growing moments and I think it was a growing moment to see what we need to do to improve on the beginning of our meets so that we come out hot,” said Leach.
This dual meet with Illinois State was also the first time that the Indiana State diving program competed consisting of Laura Fulton and Mckenzie Plummer.
Fulton placed fourth in the one meter and three meter dives while Plummer added a fifth place finish in the one meter diving competition.
“I couldn’t be more proud of our divers. Creating a diving program a month before school started, and getting Mckenzie and Laura on board and training with us has been awesome. Hats off to coach Fengting Chen and our divers, I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
Indiana State will hop back on the bus and travel to Indianapolis to face off with the Butler Bulldogs as well as other competitors tomorrow (Oct. 1) at noon.
For the latest information on the Sycamore Swimming and Diving team, make sure to check out GoSycamores.com. You can also find the team on social media including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
