Missouri State Swimming Splits With Drury

Photo Courtesy: Missouri State

SPRINGFIELD, Missouri, October 17. Missouri State swimming had to stage a pair of big-time comebacks to wind up with a split against Drury in the annual “Duel in the Pool” competition against the Panthers. Missouri State’s men won 131-112, while the women lost to Drury, 121-120.

Missouri State Press Release

Both the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams made furious comebacks in the annual Duel in the Pool at Hammons Student Center on Thursday, Oct. 16, as Missouri State won 131-112 on the men’s side and lost narrowly 121-120 on the women’s side.

“The men being shorthanded did a phenomenal job of depth points and on our top end, it was just a complete team effort,” head coach Dave Collins said. “The diving was huge for us on the men’s side and also on the women’s side. It kept us in the meet. Jim’s (Huelskamp) group did a fantastic job.”

The Bears trailed by more than 10 points on each side heading into the second diving event of the night, but the MSU divers gave the Bears the boost they needed.

MSU senior diver Garrett Nevels broke both his previous school and pool records in the 3-meter dive by finishing with 388.58 points. He also topped his previous school record and took over the pool record in the 1-meter dive by finishing with 411.87 points – previously held by the University of Missouri’s David Bonuchi with 402 which was set last November.

Bears senior Elijah Swaim finished second in both the 1- and 3-meter dives. Freshman Brody Arvesen placed third with 259.72 points in the 3-meter dive. On the women’s side, Alexis Skiniotes scored a career-best 248.70 to finish first and 242.27 points to place second on the 1- and 3-meter boards, respectively. Nina Privitera and Hannah Swyers placed in the top-four in both events.

Bears senior Paul Le broke his previous pool record in the 200 back in a time of 1:45.60, one one-hundredth of a second faster than the one he set in the Southern Illinois dual in 2013.

The last half of the meet had many highlights for the Bears.

For the men, MSU junior Uvis Kalnins placed first in the 100 free with a time of 45.24. Miguel Davila won both the 1000 free and the 500 free. Freshman Ethan Bresette also scored big points for the Bears, earning second and third place finishes in the 1000 free and 500 free, respectively.

“We knew they (Drury) would come in strong,” Bresette said. “We just realized that we would have to take the momentum back with our individual events and that was our thought process going into the meet.”

The women also held a lead heading into the final event of the night, before Drury earned a victory in the 400 free relay.

Junior Dora Kiss won the 200 free (1:54.75), 200 fly (2:07.33) and the 500 free (5:04.20) to lead MSU. Lauren Pavel placed first in the 200 breast (2:26.22) and Alyssa Powers followed her in second with a time of 2:25.54. Anna Bump and Kate Gately went 2-3 in the 100 free, while Sydney Zupan and Briana Horozewski went 2-3 in the 200 back for key points down the stretch for the Bears. Junior Ibby Simcox also contributed by gaining points with a second place finish in the 200 fly (2:08.33) and fourth in the 200 IM (2:12.46).

“When you lose by one point it’s always really hard,” junior women’s swimmer Ibby Simcox said. “But I think we did a really nice job coming back. Halfway through the meet we were down by quite a lot, so being able to get everybody behind everybody each race and getting points from the top to the bottom was great. Not just our top scorers, but our depth swimmers did a nice job.”

“We weren’t really race ready in the first couple weeks of the season,” Collins said. “We’ve really spent some time the last couple weeks of really trying to improve some skills and conditioning and we’re doing that. Leading into the next couple weeks we’re going to have to keep swimming better because we have some tough opponents.

The Bears will host their annual Alumni/Intrasquad exhibition meet at 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 18. Their following meet will take place in Lawrence, Kan., with both schools taking on Denver and the women also competing against Kansas.

Drury Press Release

Drury picked up a big 1-2 finish in the final women’s race of the night, the 400 Free Relay, to earn a split of its “Duel In The Pool” meet with Missouri State Thursday night at the Hammons Center Pool.

Drury claimed a 121-120 victory in the women’s dual meet, while the Bears – largely on the strength of diving and their Division I depth – came away with a 131-112 victory.

The Panthers had defeated the Bears on both ends in their inaugural meeting this season, at the Mizzou Show-Me Showdown In Columbia on Oct. 4.

The Drury women won seven of the 11 races contested on Thursday, including two victories for Wen Xu (50 and 100 Free).

Other triumphs came from Allie Reynolds in the 1000 Free, Gretchen Stein in the 200 IM, Yekaterina Rudenko in the 200 Back, and the 400 Medley squad of Rudenko, Martina Dankova, Wai Ting Yu and Kay Gieseke before the victory-clinching effort from Rudenko, Geseke, Yu and Wen in the 400 Free, where they finished just ahead of Stein, Megan Ouhl, Leah Reed and Sarah Pullen for the 1-2 finish that sealed it for the Panthers.

Dora Kiss won three events for the Bears, taking the 200 Free, 200 Fly and 500 Free. Missouri State kept within striking distance with a strong showing on the diving boards, with a 2-3-4-5 finish behind Drury’s Rebekah Laupp – the Panthers’ lone diver – in the 3-meter and a 1-2-3-5 finish in the 1-meter board.

Depth was a key for the Bears on the men’s side as well, as Missouri State edged the Panthers 6-5 in swimming event victories, but picked up a 1-2 finish in the 1000 Free, a 1-3-4 in the 500 Free, a 1-2-3 finish in the 3-meter diving and a 1-2-4 finish on the 1-meter board to build a strong cushion late in the meet and went on the victory.

Winners for the Panthers were Daniel Rzadkowski in the 200 Free, Rodrigo Caceres Acosta in the 50 Free, Stanislav Kuzmin in the 200 Fly, and both relays – the 400 Medley (Sean Feher, Kacper Pelczynski, Kuzmin and Acosta) and 400 Free (Rzadkowski, Feher, Kuzmin and Kai Wai David Wong).

Drury returns to action on October 25 when the Panthers face Lindenwood and Truman State in St. Peters.

The Panthers and Bears will meet again in the “Duel In The Pool” on January 22 at Drury’s Breech Pool.

Drury leads the men’s all-time series 15-14 and holds a 13-4 advantage in the women’s series.

Results: Missouri State vs. Drury

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