Women's swimming to face Illinois and Illinois State on Saturday

The women's swimming and diving team heads to Normal, Illinois for a tri-meet against conference rivals Illinois State and Big Ten foe, Illinois.

The Saluki women's team is off to a great start spurred on by senior Bryn Handley and sophomores Beibei and Baobao Ji, Rita Naude and Samantha Parsons. Handley is top in the Missouri Valley Conference in 500 and 1,000-yard freestyle while Beibei is top in the conference in the one and three-meter dives. Parsons is coming off of a weekend where she notched her second and third wins of the season, while Naude earned her first career victory as well as a second place finish against Truman State and McKendree.

This weekend the swimming Salukis turn their attention to bigger fish in Illinois State and Illinois.

"Anytime you go up against one of your rival conference schools, that's a big deal. I don't care if you're supposed to win or not supposed to win. It's a big deal." head coach Rick Walker said. "We can use this meet to help motivate us going forward. I'll look at this as placing us one step closer to where we should be. It will be a chance for evaluation, and thats how we will communicate this opportunity to our athletes."

With the Redbirds, Southern will get their first look at several talented swimmers in Morgan Resser, Karley Licking, Rachel Holm and Jensen Keck. Keck is one of the best breaststroke swimmers in the MVC. She currently ranks second in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:05.36 and is sixth in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:23.21. Holm is also in the top-five in the 100-yard breaststroke.

Rosser will provide stiff competition for Southern's distance swimmers. The Redbird is top-5 in the MVC in the 1,000-yard freestyle and the 500-yard freestyle. Licking is top-10 in the 100 and 200-yard backstroke in the MVC. The Salukis are 7-0 all-time against Illinois State.

Saturday's contest against the Illini marks the first time that the Salukis will face a team from a power-five conference this season. The Illini are 1-1 so far this year. The team defeated Indiana State in its season opener 188-111 and fell to Michigan State on Saturday 136-162. Illinois will swim in a tri-meet the night before this Saturday's meet against Rutgers and Northwestern.

Illinois is led by a strong swimmer in the individual medley and a junior diver. Freshman Michelle McCord is currently top-10 in the Big Ten in the 400-yard IM with a time of 4:28.35. Junior diver Madeline Kuhn is seventh in the Big Ten in the three-meter dive with a score of 305.70. She's 14^th in the one-meter dive with a score of 274.20.

The Salukis women's team has found success throughout their history against Illinois. Southern is 7-4 all-time against its in-state rivals from Champaign.

The tri-meet against Illinois and Illinois State starts at 10:30 a.m. with the meet's diving events, the swimming events will start at 3 p.m.

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Women's swimming to face Illinois and Illinois State on Saturday

Players Mentioned

Bryn Handley

Baobao Ji

Rita Naude

Samantha Parsons

Scoreboard

Southern Illinoise University Athletics