Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Swimmer Jenna Meckler Out Duels Illinois All-American
03/14/2001 | 12:00:00 | Swimming & Diving
October 19, 2000
Carbondale, Ill. -
Jenna Meckler had the meet of the season edging Illinois All-American and Olympic Trials participant Jessica Aveyard in the 200-yard freestyle event by the slimmest of margins Thursday at the first home meet of the 2000-2001 season for the Southern Illinois University Carbondale women's swim team.
Meckler, a junior from Richmond, Ky., beat Aveyard by only .03 seconds in the third event of the meet with a time of 1:56.00 and then won the 100 freestyle by a hair beating Crystal McAdam by .09 seconds with a time of 53.51.
SIU came away on the short end of a 178.5-121.5 score, but coach Jeff Goelz couldn't have been happier with the results.
"It was an all out team performance," Goelz said. "Everybody stood up and held their own and some more than their own, like Jenna. They out performed expectations."
Also finishing first for the Salukis were junior Brooke Radostits in the 100-yard backstroke (58.60) and freshman Meara Modlich on the three-meter diving board. The 400-yard free relay team of Meckler, Radostits, Nicoleta Michalidou and Caty Kinnaman also took first place with a time of 3:34.63 winning the last race of the meet by 2.78 seconds.
Meckler and Radostits were also members of the 400-yard medley relay team that started the meet and teamed with Beth Ann Erickson and Amy Legner to finish second. Also placing second were freshman Leane Pienaar in the 1000 free, senior Melanie Williams in the 100 breaststroke, senior Lee Frye in the 200 breaststroke, and Erickson in the 100 butterfly. Modlich also finished third in the one-meter diving event.
"They all did tremendous," Goelz said. "Best meet of the year by far. Part of it was because it was the home pool and part of it was Illinois. I think they were excited to swim Illinois and a little scared to swim Illinois. Sometimes you perform best when you are little scared. We saw it at the end. Every kid on this team had at least one in-season best time and to accomplish that at this point of the season doing the kind of work we are doing really speaks volumes of the kind of effort put forth today on both the boards and in the water."
The Salukis return to action Nov. 11 in a Missouri Valley showdown against Evansville at the SIUC Student Rec Center Pool.
