Southern Illinoise University Athletics
MVC Swimming & Diving Championships: Day 2 Preliminaries
02/09/2007 | 12:00:00 | Swimming & Diving
Feb. 9, 2007
By Ryan Shaw
www.SIUSalukis.com
Carbondale, Ill. - In the Friday morning preliminaries of the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Swimming & Diving Championships the Salukis took first place in four of the five events.
The Salukis got off to a great start, capturing three of the top four times in the 400-yard individual medley. Abby Blank led the pack, touching the wall at 4:34.01, which is a new season-best time for the junior.
Finishing second was Danielle Quarry with her new season-best time of 4:34.88. Nora Bunford took fourth place with a time of 4:40.67. Also competing for SIU was Jenna Helm, who qualified for the B finals in 13th place with a time of 4:56.41.
Missouri State's Frannie Moody finished first in the 100-yard butterfly prelims with a time of 57.91. Three Salukis swam their way into the A finals. Gabriela Flores (59.12), Kasey Fernandez (59.22) and Rachel Winius (59.34) will compete for top honors tonight.
Also competing in the event for SIU were Samantha Dvorak (59.59), who advances to the B finals, and exhibition swimmer Natalie McLean (1:03.95), who qualified for the C finals.
The Salukis were on top once again in the third event of the morning session as Therese Mattsson (1:52.88) and Isabel Madeira (1:53.58) took the top two spots in the 200-yard freestyle. Tovah Gasparovich will join her two teammates in the A final tonight following her seventh-place prelim finish at 1:56.27.
Kelly Dvorak (1:56.70) and Karin Mullendore (1:59.69) both qualified for tonight's B final. Exhibition swimmers Tember Voller (2:09.51) and Kristi Palacios (2:09.81) qualified for the C final.
SIU picked up its third first-place finish on the day when Julie Ju won the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:04.59. Advancing to the A final with Ju is Nora Bunford, who clocked in with a prelim time of 1:07.33.
In the final preliminary of the morning, the 100-yard backstroke, the Salukis captured another first-place finish when Kelly Dvorak touched the wall at 57.16. Samantha Dvorak also qualified for the A final with a time of 1:00.20.
Liz Navistsky qualified for the B final with a time of 1:02.18 and exhibition swimmer Claire Strock (1:07.72) will compete in the C final.
Finals will begin tonight at 6 p.m. at the SIU REC Center.
For more information, visit MVC Championship Central.
Players Mentioned
