Swimming and Diving sweeps conference dual meet

10/30/2010 | 12:00:00 | Swimming & Diving

Oct. 30, 2010

By Dana Ingraham
SIUSalukis.com

CARBONDALE, Ill. - Southern Illinois swimming and diving picked up their first conference wins Saturday afternoon against Missouri State, as the women defeated the Bears 140-103 and the men followed with a 142-99 win.

The Salukis tallied a combined 20 first-place finishes en route to their first wins in the Missouri Valley Conference and Mid-American Conference.

Southern started out with a sweep of the 400 medley relay, followed by Kirsten Groome and Csaba Gercsak taking top honors in the 1000 free. Jennifer Kwok followed right behind Groome for a second-place finish.

Jill Weckbach and Matt Kruse recorded top times in the 200 free, with Chris Jordan finishing second. In the next race, Luisa Silveira won the 50 free.

Brittany Weigel finished first in her first event as a Saluki, winning the 3-meter dive with a score of 230.10. Michelle Bell and Anna Beeck were right behind in second and third.

Justin Ruszkowski dominated the diving events on the men's side, scoring 287.10 in the 1-meter and 279.23 in the 3-meter.

Groome matched her first-place status in the 200 fly with Matt Parsons following in suit for the men. Jessica England and Kruse swam to third-place times.

Silveira and El Badrawi swept the 100 free before Cesar Perez won the 200 back. Kwok and Mazen Aziz finished first in the 500 free, while Kristin Geppert topped the competition in the 200 breast.

The men's team sealed the victory with a first-place time in the 400 free relay.

With the victory, the Saluki women improve to 2-2 in dual meets this year, while the men are 2-1.

Southern Illinois will return to the pool Nov. 5 when it travels to Champaign, Ill. to participate in a tri-meet with the University of Illinois and Michigan State at 4 p.m.

Final Team Scores
Men
Southern Illinois 142, Missouri State 99
Women
Southern Illinois 140, Missouri State 103