Salukis with yet another impressive performance

Sunday, November 20

Louisville, Ky.

TBA

Southern Illinois University

Louisville Invite

11/21/2016 | 10:00:00 | Swimming & Diving

By: By Drew Hoffman, SIUSalukis.com

COMPLETE RESULTS

LOUISVILLE, KY. - The Southern Illinois University swimming and diving team wrapped up their non-conference schedule over the weekend at Louisville's invitational. The women's team finished in fourth place, posting a score of 993 points, and the men's team finished second with 1511.5 points.

The three day invitational started off just like every other meet the Salukis have competed in so far this fall, with solid finishes from their upper classmen. Juniors, Bryn Handley and Michael Wolfe, both finished in the top ten in the second longest race fo the meet, the 500-yard freestyle, to start things off. SIU followed this up with a record breaking performance from newcomer, Samantha Parsons. Parsons placed sixth place in the 200-yard IM and also break a four year old school record. Prior to this weekend, the top time in school history for the 200-yard IM was 2:03.32 held by Hannah Pinion. Parsons broke the four year old record by nearly a whole second, recording a time 2:02.68 in the finals. She has now broken two SIU records this season. Over the course of the meet Parsons took fifth in the 400-yard IM, 9th in 100-yard breaststroke, and 5th in 200-yard breaststroke.

Senior Bobby Wood got in on the action, as he grabbed one of seven top two finishes for the Dawgs. His time of 54.26 seconds in the 100-yard breaststroke was only be 1.33 seconds behind the first place finisher. Wood also broke his own school record by .68 seconds. Fellow senior, Andre Brilhante, contributed heavily for the Salukis over the weekend, competing in eight different events for SIU. Of those eight, he claimed six top ten finishes and three second place finishes in three of the four relays he competed in.

One of the big stories from the meet was how strong the relay teams for both the men and the women competed. In the ten relays SIU had a top five finish in every single race. The 200-yard freestyle relay and the 800-yard freestyle relay was the best performances from both squads. The women's team took third place in both, and the men's team finished in second place in both races, only behind nationally ranked Louisville. The 400-yard medley relay team on the women's side also broke a 30 year old record at SIU. Sarah James, Parsons, Emma Brazeau, and Bryn Handley beat the the 1986 record by .75 seconds, with a time of 3:46.24.

After everything was said and done, the Salukis finished the meet with 25 top-five finishes, three broken school records, and great momentum before they come home for their first home meet of the year. SIU will take on Missouri State on December 3 at the Shea Natatorium in Carbondale.