Illinois State, Missouri State vs. Evansville

EVANSVILLE, Indiana, October 24. THE Illinois State swimming and diving team had several outstanding performances as the `Birds beat Missouri Valley Conference opponents Evansville (73.5-21.5) and Missouri State (61-52) Friday night. Junior Lindsay Dinkelman, sophomores Lauren Terzis, Amy Schaefer, Christine Byron and freshman Lauren Boyd all walked away with first-place finishes as the Redbirds captured their fifth straight win and achieved 5-0 dual meet record.

Terzis led the Redbirds as she achieved two first-place finishes in the 1000-yard freestyle and 500-yard freestyle events with times of 10:26.94 and 5:07.30, respectively. Dinkelman swam the 100-yard breaststroke event in a time of 1:07.43 achieving a season-best time. Amy Schaefer recorded two season-best times as she swam the 100-yard butterfly event with a first-place time of 58.40 and the 200-yard freestyle event with a third-place time of 1:56.23. Byron went on to win the 100-yard backstroke event with a time of 1:84.00. Earning two personal-best times, Boyd swam the 50-yard freestyle with a first-place time of 24.39 and the 100-yard freestyle event with a third-place time of 54.32.

Head coach Steve Paska was impressed with the outstanding performances from his team.

"It was a tremendous night for us," Paska said. "It was an outstanding meet and ended with us coming home victorious. We had a number of season-best and personal-best times. These performances demonstrate the quality and depth of our swimmers, and it is one of the reasons we came out victorious. We are very proud of what we did."

The Redbirds had many other notable performances as sophomore Ashley Bachler and freshman Sarah Piechocinski each achieved personal-best times in their respective events. Bachler earned a third-place finish in the 1000-yard freestyle event with a time of 10:40.43 while Piechocinski touched the wall with a time of 2:15.22 in the 200-yard individual medley event.

Paska is very pleased with how the team performed.

"It was a very competitive meet," Paska said. "We can savor these first four weeks of competition and having five consecutive wins in dual-meets is something to be proud of. This young team has been building chemistry since the start of the season and I think we are close to where we want to be."

Redbird diver junior Katelyn Prorok led the `Birds on the diving board as she earned a first-place finish on the one-meter board and second-place finish on the three-meter board with scores of 248.40 and 212.65 respectively. Junior Liza Perrino also had a notable performance as she placed fourth on the three-meter board with a score of 201.40

Head diving coach Phil Hoffmann was pleased with the level of competition at the meet.

"It was a great meet that allowed us the opportunity to see our conference foes in competition," Hoffmann said. "We faced strong competition from Evansville and Missouri State and this meet was good to see how everyone is performing at this point in the season. I look forward to seeing the high caliber of diving that each team will bring in February at the MVC Championships."

The Redbirds will take a week off before hosting in-state rival Illinois on Nov. 7

Special thanks to Illinois State for contributing this report.

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