Southern Illinois University
Western Kentucky
Swimming & Diving Teams Split With Western Kentucky
01/15/2005 | 12:00:00 | Swimming & Diving
Jan. 15, 2005
By Lou Antoine
SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Saluki men (4-5) won nine of 13 events, led by junior Jason Sigler and freshmen Gareth McGee and Antonio Santoro, who won two events each, en route to a 133-107 win over Western Kentucky (5-2) at the SIU Student Rec Center Pool on Saturday.
"Western Kentucky is a good team and we did a good job today to beat them. Both teams overcame illness and injury to swim a good meet," said Rick Walker, SIU head coach. "We needed a win on the men's side today and the future looks good with the young guys stepping up and swimming well. I'm very happy about this win."
Sigler dominated the distance events, winning the 500 (4:39.50) and 1000-yard freestyle (9:30.14). McGee won the 200-yard individual medley (1:53.68) and the 200-yard backstroke (1:48.55), while fellow frosh Santoro won the 200-yard freestyle (1:40.86) and 200-yard butterfly (1:51.28).
Junior Bryan Riekena won the 50-yard freestyle (21.38); Miguel King claimed the 200-yard breaststroke (2:06.81) and sophomore Ben Palacios won the 3-meter dive (264.82) to round out the event winners. The Palacios win was his first as a Saluki and was key to the win.
Despite a 130-113 loss by the SIU women (3-4) to the undefeated Hilltoppers (9-0), Walker was proud of the effort of a women's squad that tested WKU.
"I know we lost on the women's side, but they beat us really bad last year. This year we were close and we really competed against them," added Walker. "I'm not happy with a loss, but I'll take a loss when the team competes like this against some of the win's we've had. The score didn't reflect just how close the meet was today."
The Saluki women won five individual events, led by senior Rachel Green's career-best 53.51 in the 100-yard freestyle. Sophomore Gabriela Flores ( 200-yard butterfly - 2:05.56), juniors Briley Bergen (500-yard freestyle - 5:08.63) and Elizabeth McGowan (1000-yard freestyle - 10:26.72), and senior Natalie Kenny (200-yard freestyle - 1:55.23) each won events to lead the Saluki women.
Southern Illinois will be home two of the next three weeks to face MVC foes SMS (Jan. 22) and Evansville (Feb. 5), before hosting the season-ending MVC Championship and MVC Invitational on Feb. 17-19.
