Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Saluki Women Swimmers Face Big Time Competition at Indiana Invitational
03/14/2001 | 12:00:00 | Swimming & Diving
November 16, 2000
The Southern Illinois University Carbondale women's swim team will face some big time competition this weekend at the Indiana Invitational Friday through Sunday in Bloomington, Indiana.
The Salukis are 1-2 in dual meets and are 5-0 in invitational action this season. Scheduled to compete along with the Dawgs will be Indiana, Cincinnati, Notre Dame, Miami (Fla.), Illinois, Evansville and Tennessee diving.
The Salukis have met both Illinois and Evansville already this season and split the results. SIU lost to Illinois 178.5 to 121.5 Oct. 19 at the SIU Student Recreation Center Pool. The Dawgs have beaten Evansville twice this season taking them last weekend in a dual meet 148-95 at home and edging them out at the Missouri Valley Conference Shootout Oct. 14, 244-210, with SIU finishing first and Evansville second.
"This is our big meet of the fall," SIU women's coach Jeff Goelz said. "Everybody's been talking about this one for the whole semester. This is a great meet to be at. Our kids are ready and rested. This is our big one where we are going to let it all hang out where every event is going to be highly contested. There is not a kid on the team who won't have to perform well to make the finals. It's a fast pool with lots of history and tradition."
The Dawgs will be taking 20 swimmers to compete with the three divers traveling with the men's team as they compete in the Northwestern Invitational this weekend also.
One of the big battles should be the rematch between SIU's Jenna Meckler and Illinois' All-American Jessica Aveyard. The junior from Richmond, Kentucky bested Aveyard in the 200 freestyle by .03 seconds and then won the 100 freestyle by a similar margin over UI's Crystal McAdam by .09 seconds. Meckler will be competing in the 50, 100, 200 and 500 freestyle events.
Junior Brooke Radostits also had a good meet against Illinois winning the 100 backstroke and teaming with Meckler, Nicoleta Michaelidou and Caty Kinnaman in the 400 free relay to win that event.
