Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Southern Illinois University
Purdue Invitational
Swimming and Diving finishes fourth, sixth at Purdue Invitational
11/20/2005 | 12:00:00 | Swimming & Diving
Nov. 20, 2005
By Matt Crouch
www.siusalukis.com
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Facing its toughest competition yet this season, the Southern Illinois University swimming & diving teams finished strong during the final day of the Purdue Invitational. The men's team finished the meet in fourth while the women retained their sixth-place position.
The men's team (4-1) knocked off a top-25 opponent for the second time this season, finishing ahead of #24 Missouri. The Salukis also finished ahead of 2005 Missouri Valley Conference Invitational champion Missouri State.
The women's team (2-3) beat out 2005 MVC champion Missouri State.
"I am very pleased overall. We beat Missouri State on both sides and we beat Missouri on the men's side," said SIU Head Coach Rick Walker. "Also, if you take a look at the teams in front of us, we are not very far back."
The teams swam in six swimming events today and one diving event. The swimming events were the 200-Yard Backstroke, 100-Yard Freestyle, 200-Yard Breaststroke, 200-Yard Butterfly, 1650-Yard Freestyle and the 400-Yard Freestyle Relay. Teams also competed in Platform Diving.
The highlight of the day came from Antonio Santoro. The sophomore from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil posted a NCAA provisional-qualifying time of 1:47.88 in the 200-Yard Butterfly victory.
It was Santoro's second provisional-qualifying time after he did the same in the 500-Yard Freestyle on Friday.
The women also performed well in the 200 Fly with junior Gabriela Flores finishing 23rd with a time of 2:12.01. Katie Lowry finished right behind Flores, in 24th, with a time of 2:12.27.
The men's team placed two swimmers in the top 10 of the 200-Yard Backstroke. Gareth McGee came in at fourth with a time of 1:48.40 while freshman Alexandre Marrucho followed in ninth with a time of 1:49.65.
Freshman Kelly Dvorak led the women in the 200-Yard Backstroke as she finished 17th with a time of 2:06.36.
Dennis Hedo, a freshman from Stockholm, Sweden, posted a runner-up finish in the 100-Yard Freestyle after he swam the event in 45.55 seconds. Fellow freshman Isabel Madeira had the top finish for the women's team, coming in 22nd (53.24).
Christian Tinajero gave the men another top 10 finish in the 200-Yard Breaststroke as he finished the even 10th with a time of 2:05.52. Nora Bunford, a junior from Budapest, Hungary, led the women in the 200 Breast as she finished fifth with a time of 2:20.22.
In the final individual swimming event, Jason Sigler led the men's team to a sixth-place finish in the 1650-Yard Freestyle. He finished the event with a season-best 15:57.16.
Briley Bergen led the women's team in the 1650 Free, finishing 16th with a time of 17:29.31.
In the day's lone relay event, the men's team came in third in the 400-Yard Freestyle Relay while the women finished seventh.
The men's team of Stephan Ackerman, Santoro, McGee and Hedo finished the event in 3:01.10 while the women's team of Madeira, Danielle Quarry, Kelsey Kinsella and Jennifer Janssen finished in 3:37.85.
Cristina Curtuneanu posted a sixth-place finish in the Platform Diving for the women with a score of 191.25 while the men did not have anyone qualify on the platform.
"They are not going to face any tougher competition than they did right here," said Walker. "This meet is something to reflect and build on. We are trying to do some bigger and better things now."
The Saluki swimming & diving teams will go on break this week for the Thanksgiving holiday. Some of the team members will return to action Dec. 1-3 at the U.S. Open in Auburn, Ala., while the team will not compete again until its dual meet against Missouri State, Jan. 21, 2006 in Springfield, Mo.
