Southern Illinoise University Athletics
SIU Women Win Fourth Straight Title
03/14/2001 | 12:00:00 | Swimming & Diving
February 18, 2001
The Southern Illinois University Carbondale women's swimming and diving team outdistanced the rest of the field in winning its fourth straight Missouri Valley Conference swimming and diving championship Saturday. On the men's side, it came down to the last leg of the final relay event before Southwest Missouri State won its second consecutive title by only five points over SIU.
"WOW," said first-year SIU women's coach Jeff Goelz. "These girls did everything that was asked of them. As a group there were tremendous performances across the board. Every athlete has at least a swim or two they could hang their hat on and say awesome swim. It was a total team effort with a lot of records set. Brooke Radostits sets the school and conference record in the 200 back and makes an NCAA B cut, our first one in over ten years. Leane Pienaar almost sets three records and sets the mile record by over 12 seconds and Amber Mullins is right there with her five seconds under the record. So it was one of those days where everything is happening and I think I'm just going to go home and pass out now from all the excitement."
SIU won the women's title garnering 914 points with Evansville coming in second with 752 points. SMS finished third (571), Illinois State fourth (549.5), Northern Iowa fifth (277.5) and Bradley sixth (111). For the men SMS scored 916 points to SIU's 911 with Evansville third (664), Northern Iowa fourth (355) and Bradley fifth (204).
Overall, 11 new women's records were set with the Salukis setting five of them while six men's records were broken with SIU setting four. Evansville accounted for the remaining six women's records with Kim Dodson setting three of the marks and the others being relays. UE's Nikola Kalabic set a new mark in the 200 free while SMS's Josh Wegrzyn broke the record in the 200 backstroke.
Brooke Radostits had a stellar meet setting a new conference championship record in the 200 backstroke with a time 2:01.70 breaking her own record by over three seconds. In addition, the junior from Park Forest also won the 100 backstroke giving her the MVC title in both events for the third straight year.
Leane Pienaar swam in her first conference championship and came away as not only the champion in three events, but the record holder in two of them. The freshman from South Africa set new standards in the 500 and 1650 freestyle and won the title in the 400 IM. In addition, the 200 and 800 free relay teams set new records for the Saluki women.
For the Saluki men, freshman Derek Helvey set a record in the 400 IM and won the 500 free while junior Matt Munz was a double winner in the 200 IM and the 100 butterfly. Sophomore Joel Hanger erased the old record in the 3-Meter dive, junior Chris Papachrysanthou broke his own record while winning his third straight 50 freestyle title and the 200 medley relay team also set a new record.
SIU also won the 200 free and 400 medley relay titles in addition to Joe Tidwell winning the 100 breaststroke and Corne Prozesky claiming his second consecutive 200 breaststroke crown.
