Southern Illinois University
Drury
Swimming and Diving defeats Drury
11/19/2009 | 12:00:00 | Swimming & Diving
Nov. 19, 2009
By Dana Ingraham
www.SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Southern Illinois swimming and diving program returned to its winning ways Thursday afternoon as both the men and women picked up team victories against Drury University.
The Salukis were looking for their first win since hosting Washington (Mo.) Oct. 30, and found it against last year's Division II National Champions. The men topped the Panthers 139-104 while the women handed Drury a 143-97 loss.
Drury jumped out to a quick lead, taking top honors in the 400 medley relay on both sides.
In the third event of the meet, MVC Swimmer of the Week Kirsten Groome improved her 1000 free time yet again, swimming 9:56.14. Shaving over three seconds off her time from just five days ago, the mark puts the freshman one spot out of the top-10 in the nation for this event.
Later in the meet, Groome went on to capture her second victory of the day in the 500 free (4:55.74). Matt Kruse won the same event for the men, swimming his fastest time of the season at 4:41.45.
Senior Therese Mattsson swam her best time of the season in the 200 free (1:51.38), good for a first-place finish. Mattsson followed up with another victory in the 100 free (51.93).
For the men, Matt Parsons took the top spots in the 200 free at 1:41.58, and the 100 fly at 50.43.
Tovah Gasparovich and Tony Bousquet won the 50 free for SIU, posting times of 24.28 and 21.77, respectively. Bousquet also finished first in the 100 free with a time of 47.11.
Not to be outdone, Saluki divers recorded top scores in the 1-meter and 3-meter dives as well. Emily Gable placed first with scores of 260.18 and 268.42, while Justin Ruszkowski finished first for the men with personal season-best scores of 288.38 and 313.13.
The duo of Kristin Geppert and Jameson Kuper picked up wins in the 100 breast heading into the final event of the meet, the 400 free relay. Both relay teams for SIU swam season-best times for the event to secure the victory.
With the win, SIU improves to 4-2 in dual meets this year. The Salukis will return to action in their final competition of 2009 when both teams travel to Columbia, Mo. to participate in the Missouri Invitational Dec. 4-6.
Players Mentioned
