Southern Illinois University
MVC Women's Championships
Swimming and Diving rounds out MVC Championships in third place
02/19/2011 | 12:00:00 | Swimming & Diving
Feb. 19, 2011
By Dana Ingraham
SIUSalukis.com
Complete Results: Day Three Finals
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Southern Illinois women's swimming and diving team ended the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Championships where it was projected to finish, taking third place Saturday on the final night of competition.
Missouri State took the outright team title for the fourth consecutive year, and has now won eight of the last nine championships.
Southern kicked off day three with two big scores in the 1,650 freestyle. Kirsten Groome claimed the crown for the second-straight year swimming 16:43.53, marking her third individual title of this year's championships. Jennifer Kwok finished in second place, shattering her previous career-best time touching in at 16:54.22.
Isabela Castro topped last year's defending champion in the 200 backstroke, Missouri State's Chelsea Dirks-Ham, to capture third place overall with a new personal-best time of 2:03.90. Also scoring points for SIU in the race was Kristy Hinkle, who finished fifth in the B final
MSU's Amber Green broke her second record of the championships in the 100 freestyle, setting a new pool, conference and championship mark at 49.52. Southern fielded three out of the top eight swimmers in the race, led by Jill Weckbach who finished up in fourth place with a career-best 52.60, followed by Luisa Silveira in fifth and Rachael Barry in seventh.
Kristin Geppert built on her championship time in the 100 breast from Friday night to win the 200 breast by a second and shaving two seconds off her career-best time at 2:17.37. In the last individual race of her Saluki career, Marcela Teixeira finished fourth with a season-best time of 2:22.93. In the B final, Susan Minkel came in fifth place.
Castro ended her first MVC Championship appearance with a bang as she won the 200 butterfly in dramatic fashion, pulling out a come-from-behind victory over three Illinois State Redbirds to win her first outright title. The only Saluki in the heat, she surge ahead in the last 50 yards for a final time of 2:03.60.
Melissa Larocque, Kwok, and Carly Schlupp followed in the B final, finsihing fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively.
Brittany Weigel was another freshman to come up big for SIU, as she set a new personal-best score of 264.80 en route to the three-meter dive championship. Michelle Bell finished in fourth place with a score of 240.25.
At the conclusion of the meet, Valley officials handed out specialty conference awards to participants from all five teams. For her efforts this year, Weigel was named MVC Co-Diver of the Year along with Evansville's Sadie Wells. Amber Green of Missouri State was tabbed Swimmer of the Year. UE's Eric Blevins earned Diving Coach of the Year honors while champion coach Jack Steck of Missouri State was given the nod of Swim Coach of the Year.
In addition, Barry, Bell and Weckbach earned MVC Honorable Mention, while Castro, Geppert, Groome, Kwok, Silveira, Teixeira and Weigel were named to the league's First Team.
Final Team Scores
1. Missouri State, 944
2. Illinois State, 735
3. Southern Illinois, 616
4. Evansville, 476.5
5. Northern Iowa, 372.5
Players Mentioned
