INDIANA STATE VS. SOUTHERN ILLINOIS
- Saturday, January 27, 2018
- Carbondale, Illinois
- Results
SCORES
- Southern Illinois: 189
- Indiana State: 111
PRESS RELEASE – SOUTHERN ILLINOIS
The Saluki women’s swimming and diving team notched its fourth-straight dual meet victory today with a big win over Indiana State at home.
The Aqua Dawgs won 10 of the 16 events over Indiana State‘s women’s team on the way to a 189-111 victory over their Missouri Valley Conference foes. With the win, Southern improved to 2-0 over the Sycamores all time.
The Salukis were led by its diving team which dominated their portion of the meet by placing all four of the team’s diver’s in the top-four spots in the one and three-meter dives. Sophomore Beibei Ji won both the one and three-meter dives. In the one-meter dive, Beibei Ji recorded a new personal best score of 310.95 to clinch the victory. Beibei’s twin sister Baobao Ji was not far behind with a personal-best score of 303.45 in second. Senior Rachel Williams was third with a score of 276.60, which was also her personal best. Sophomore Lani Cieszynski was fourth with a score of 214.35, her personal best.
In the three-meter dive, Beibei earned her fifth win of the season with a score of 304.58. Baobao was second with a score of 292.80, Williams finished third with a score of 272.03, her best score of the year and Cieszynski finished fourth.
In total, Southern’s divers earned a total of 32 points towards the team’s score, 16 percent of the teams 189 points.
The women’s swimming team was just as dominant against the Trees winning eight of the 14 events on the day.
Senior Bryn Handley won both of her individual events. Her first win came in the 1,000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:10.86. She won the race by nearly 20 seconds over Indiana State‘s freshman Vivian Kritikou who was second. Handley’s fellow senior Nicole Fuller was third with a time of 10:41.03. Handley also won the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:02.79.
In the 200-yard freestyle, senior Kelsie Walker earned her first win of the season in the event with a time of 1:53.82, her new best time this year in the 200-yard freestyle. It was Walker’s first win since September 2017 when she won the 1,000-yard freestyle in the McKendree and Truman State tri-meet. Junior Jordan Ries was third in the 200-freestyle with a time of 1:54.73. Walker also finished third in the 100-yard freestyle behind her fellow Saluki seniors McKenna Avery and Chandler Ott.
In the women’s 100-yard breaststroke, the Salukis swept the top-three spots to earn 16 points towards the Salukis’ team score. Sophomore Sam Parsons led the way in the event with a time of 1:06.03. Juniors Abby Kresal and Jessica Peck were second and third.
In the 200-yard butterfly, junior Audrey Snyder won her third event of the season with a time of 2:05.03. Sophomore Payton Parman was second with a time of 2:06.94. In the 100-yard butterfly, junior Emma Brazeauwas first with a time of 57.61. Freshman Abbie Young and sophomore Rita Naude were second and third respectively.
In the women’s 200-yard medley relay, the Saluki team of sophomore Juliana Carvalho, junior Jessica Peck and Naude and Ott swam the race with a time of 1:47.68. It was the new best time for the Salukis in the event this season by more than 10 seconds.
While the men were not competing, several swimmers did swim time trials in the meet to look to improve their personal times. One swimmer that did so was junior Chris Cole who swam the 400-yard IM with a time of 4:00.63 to set a new best time for Southern in the event this season. He owned the previous best time in the event for the Salukis this season and improved upon his time by more than four seconds.
The Salukis close out the regular season next week at home on senior day in a meet against Evansville. Both the men’s and women’s teams will compete in the meet that starts at 11 a.m.
PRESS RELEASE – INDIANA STATE
CARBONDALE, Ill. – Indiana State faced off with Missouri Valley Conference opponent Southern Illinois in their final regular season meet. The Sycamores fell to the Salukis 189 to 111.
The Sycamores entered the meet coming off a dominating win over Ball State on Jan. 20.
While Indiana State battled through the entire meet the Sycamores could not edge the 2016-2017 conference runner-ups.
“The team came out really hot today and swam strong all the way through. The 200 medley relay and the 1000 freestyle were really strong events for us to start and then we kept ratting on through. This was a great time for us as we get ready to head into conference,” said head coach Matt Leach.
The Sycamores started off the day with a second place finish in the 200 yard medley relay as the team of Kendall Hansen, Megan Schade, Jacquie Price and Alex Malmborg notched a time of 1:48.06.
Hansen provided especially strong performances later in the meet as she placed first in the 100 and 200 backstroke events. Hansen has come out on top in these events in nearly every meet this season.
Vivian Kritikou followed up with a second place finish in the 1000 freestyle and an impressive 10:30.34.
Blanca Saez-Illobre came up strong for the Sycamores in the 200 freestyle as she placed second with a time of 1:54.60. Saez-Illobre would add two more standout performances later in the meet as she finished in first place in her next two events.
She first recorded a 2:21.06 in the 200 breaststroke followed by a 4:27.85 in the 400 IM.
Malmborg continued the momentum with a first place finish in the 50 freestyle and time of 24.12.
Cierra Campbell added the next big result as she finished second in the 500 freestyle with a time of 5:08.69.
Laura Fulton and Mckenzie Plummer also added solid performances for the Sycamores in the one and three meter springboard. Fulton finished with a 196.58 in the one meter and a 160.20 in the three meter, while Plummer recorded 163.13 and a 116.77.
“We threw in some new dives today and they both did a great job. I am looking forward to the next couple weeks of training and then seeing how they compete at conference,” said diving coach Fengting Chen.
The Sycamores finished the day strong with a first place finish in the 400 freestyle relay.
“The biggest thing today was seeing how we have progressed and grown from last year. We are really excited for conference and are happy with the strong performances today. Southern Illinois is a really well coached team, but all in all we did a great job today,” said Leach.
ISU will enter a few weeks of training and be back in action Feb. 14 through Feb. 17 as they travel to Iowa City, Iowa for their second MVC Championship meet.
