Missouri Valley Championships: Day Three

CARBONDALE, Illinois, February 16. AFTER three days of tough competition at the 2008 State Farm/Missouri Valley Conference Swimming and Diving Championships, Missouri State University took home the Valley title.

The Bears won the event with 942 points, Southern Illinois is in second with 774.5 points, Illinois State finished third with 715.5 points, Northern Iowa placed fourth with 346 points and Evansville finished in fifth place with 335 points.

Missouri State grabbed a huge lead when they took the top four spots in the 1,650-yard freestyle. Matana Wellman won the event with a time of 17:26.17. Following Wellman were Katharina Voelkel (2nd, 17:28.97), Hilary Morrow (3rd, 17:36.11) and Nina Bailey (4th, 17:40.92).

The Salukis picked up a title in the 200-yard backstroke with a win by Kelly Dvorak, who posted her season-best time of 2:02.28 to win the event. Also scoring for SIU in the event were Danielle Quarry (6th, 2:08.44) and Rachael Slattery (15th, 2:13.70).

SIU's Therese Mattsson collected a win in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 51.24 seconds. Also scoring for SIU were Isabel Madeira (3rd, 52.91), Tovah Gasparovich (4th, 53.26) and Emily Duerringer (6th, 53.41).

Julie Ju collected another win for SIU with a time of 2:15.99 in the 200-yard breaststroke. Also scoring for SIU were Marcela Teixeira (3rd, 2:21.99) and Keli Kramer (7th, 2:29.74).

MSU's Breanna Hollar won the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:06.04. SIU's Lisa Jaquez (3rd, 2:06.91), Abby Blank (5th, 2:09.18) and Kasey Fernandez (9th, 2:11.92) all scored in the event for the Salukis.

Missouri State's Chelsea Ray won the 3-meter diving event with a score of 264.8. SIU's Emily Gable followed in second with a score of 255.35.

The SIU relay team of Isabel Madeira, Tovah Gasparovich, Therese Mattsson and Julie Ju won the 400-yard freestyle relay with a time of 3:27.06.

Special thanks to Southern Illinois for contributing this report.

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