Western Illinois fell to South Dakota on both the men’s and women’s sides this Saturday. The women’s meet was decided 141-66, while the men’s final score was posted at 134-108. South Dakota senior Chase Testa swept the diving events to help his team earn the win.
Western Illinois:
VERMILLION, S.D. – An early deficit cost the Western Illinois men’s swimming and diving team Saturday (Oct. 10) in a 134-108 loss to South Dakota. The Leathernecks’ women’s squad fell 141-66.
“We did struggle a bit at the beginning of the meet from our long travel going to Omaha, and then up to Vermillion,” said head coach Greg Naumann. “We did wake our legs up going into the middle section of the meet, but we allowed USD to get too much of a lead. This just allows the team to realize that we need to warm-up a little differently when we travel to meets for the future.”
On the men’s side, Western Illinois scored their first top finish in the men’s 200-medley relay. The team of Samir Almhiemid, JD Furr, Chris Neaveill and Tyler Neaveill put together a 1:47.33 swim. Dylon Rykosky, John Hall and the Neaveill brothers also took first in the 200-free relay with a time of 1:36.69.
In the men’s 400-IM, Hall took first in 4:44.18, with Matt Abercrombie right behind him at 4:48.53. Chris Neaveill then recorded a first-place touch in the 100-fly in 57.15, with Almhiemid (59.83) and Cameron Van De Velde (1:00.08) taking third and fourth, respectively.
Rykosky took the men’s 100-free in 53.33. In the 200-free, Rykosky scored a second-place touch in 1:58.14.
Furr (1:06.51), Kyle Siebert (1:10.12) and Ryan Miller (1:11.25) took second through fourth in the 100-back. The Leathernecks also registered second-place finishes in the 50-free (Tyler Neaveill, 25.00) and 100-back (Almhiemid, 1:01.36).
Viktor Rusenas earned a 238.73 score to finish in second in the three-meter dive.
Coming off a meet the night prior in Omaha, the Western women did not post a first-place swim until event 19, with Amanda Schaefer putting together a 4:46.89 time in the 400-free. Schaefer also came in second in the 800-free in 9:49.27.
The Leathernecks recorded two late first-place finishes. Sarah Rosenhauer took the 100-breast in 1:20.54, just ahead of Andie Villez‘s 1:21.12 time. The team of Lizzie Hollopeter, Marissa Purdum, Erica Hagen and Alli DeWane won the 200-free relay in 1:56.38.
Hagen touched in third in the 100-back in 1:11.00 while Hannah Fisher (5:02.16) and Amy Borgstede (5:18.86) finished in second and third, respectively, in the 400-free.
In the one-meter dive, Melanie Pearson scored 208.05 to come in second.
We had some good highlights throughout the meet with strong finishes,” Naumann said. “We will look to continue on with our training since we are seeing a good amount of improvement from meet to meet. We will have some meets that are going to be a little tougher, but this is just what we have to do in order to prepare for conference.”
Both the Western Illinois men’s and women’s teams are back in the pool in a meet on Friday (Oct. 6) against Illinois, Eastern Illinois and Olivet Nazarene in Champaign.
Swimming news courtesy of Western Illinois Swimming & Diving.
South Dakota:
VERMILLION S.D.—The South Dakota swimming and diving teams swept Western Illinois in their home opener on Saturday in the DakotaDome. The men’s team won 134-108 and the women won 141-66.
The Coyote men and women swept the one and three-meter dives with junior Greysen Hertting winning the one meter with a score of 267.75 and the three meter with a score of 234.60. Senior Chase Testa swept for the men and scored a 253.95 on the one meter and a 260.18 in the three meter.
In the swimming portion, Freshman Hunter Padgett led the men with two wins. Padgett set a school record in the 400-meter freestyle with a time of 4:11.42. The old-record had stood since 1996. Padgett also won the 200-meter freestyle with a time of 1:57.68.
Junior Adam Fenton and freshman Chris Pospisil went 1-2 in the 800-meter freestyle. Fenton had a time of 9:01.11 and Pospisil had a time of 9:09.29. Freshman Quinn Fawcett won the 200-meter freestyle with a time of 2:13.02.
The Coyotes had the top-four times in the women’s 50-meter freestyle. Sophomore Kellee Lekavy won with a time of 28.41. On the men’s side Greyson Heckman won the same event with a time of 24.90.
Junior Allie Pfauth won the women’s 400-meter individual medley with a time of 5:17.82. The Coyotes took the top six spots in the event.
Freshman Hannah Gupton won the 100-meter butterfly with a time of 1:08.40 and teammate junior Tayler Kirtley came in second with 1:09.55. Freshman Theresa Godlewski won the 100-meter freestyle with a time of 1:00.82.
Senior Maggie Smith won the 100-meter backstroke with a time of 1:09.21 and Ian Ford won the same event for the men with 1:00.65. Junior Jake Knowles won the 100-meter breaststroke with a time of 1:06.20.
In relay events, the women’s team of freshman Abby Hollub, sophomore Kelly Howell, sophomore Kit Juffer, and Smith won the 200-meter freestyle relay with a time of 1:55.53. Godlewski, senior Hannah Veselik, Gupton, and junior Erin Kleiner won the 200-meter medley relay with a time of 2:03.92.
The Coyote women’s team is back in the pool on Oct. 22 at home against Northern Iowa. The men are back in action on Nov. 6 when they travel to Ames, Iowa, for the ISU & TCU Triangular.
Swimming news courtesy of South Dakota Swimming & Diving.
