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IOWA CITY, IOWA – The Southern Illinois University women's swimming and diving team travels Iowa to compete in this year's Missouri Valley Championships, today. The championships start tomorrow night and go through Saturday evening.

The Salukis enter the championships as the reigning champs, edging out Missouri State by .5 points in 2016 to win the title. At the beginning of the season SIU was tabbed as the preseason favorite to win this year's championship, again barely edging out Missouri State.

During the course of the season the team saw many opponents from the MVC in competition. They opened and closed out their regular season with a meet against the Evansville Purple Aces. SIU won both meetings by 40 plus margin. In the second meet of the season nine members of the women's squad participated MSU's first ever invitational at the beginning of October. At the meet the Salukis finished behind the Bears in the final standings, but finished in front of Illinois State, University of Arkansas-Little Rock, and Northern Iowa. In the very next meet SIU squared off with Illinois State in a three-way dual with the University of Illinois. ISU had no answer for the water Dawgs, losing, 170-110. Two weeks later the Salukis finished ahead of the Redbirds at the Louisville Invite, going undefeated against ISU in the fall.

SIU had a few weeks off before playing host to MSU in Carbondale. The match was a back and forth affair, and unlike in the spring, the Bears barely edged out SIU, 155-143. Southern dominated the pool in all the freestyle events, even sweeping the podium in the 200-yard freestyle.

The team had more than a month off before getting back in the pool. SIU took on UALR for their second consecutive conference meet. Southern won in dominating fashion, picking up a 224-74 victory. The Salukis followed up this strong performance with another at Indiana State. It was the first time the two teams have competed against one another since the 1980s. SIU went on to win the match, 142-111.

The team finished their regular season with only one head-to-head loss against MVC teams on their resume.

Arkansas Little-Rock – 2-0
Evansville – 2-0
Illinois State – 3-0
Indiana State – 1-0
Missouri State – 0-2 (finished behind them at MSU Invite)
Northern Iowa – 1-0

At the end of the regular season the MVC conducted a pre-championship poll. The Salukis were selected to finish second behind MSU, who received six of the seven first place votes.

PRE-CHAMPIONSHIP POLL

1.	Missouri State (6)	48
2.	Southern Illinois (1)	43
3.	UNI	35
4.	Illinois State	28
5.	Little Rock	19
6.	Evansville	16
7.	Indiana State	7

SIU's times during the regular were some of the best in all of the MVC. The Salukis cracked the top-20 in every single event, and claimed the top spot in the 200-yard free, 500-yard free, 1,000-yard free, 1,650-yard free, and the 800-yard freestyle relay. In total the Dawgs notched 62 top times, the only team to record more was Missouri State, who had 69. For a complete look at the top times in the conference click here.

QUICK HITTERS
-This year's championships are being hosted by Northern Iowa. It is the first year SIU hasn't hosted since the 2008-2009 season.

-Southern will compete this year's championships without junior, Kelsie Walker, due to injury. No player has scored more points in the championships the past two seasons.

-Bryn Handley enters the MVC championships with one loss in 2017. The junior is 9-1 in the New Year, her only loss being a second place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay against Evansville. The Louisville native is undefeated in individual events.

-The Salukis tallied eight MVC weekly honors during the regular season. Bryn Handley earned the award four times, Rachel Williams twice, and Samantha Parsons and Kelsie Walker earned the award once.

The first event of the championships will be the 200-yard medley relay Wednesday evening. For a complete schedule of the week click here.

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Bryn Handley

Samantha Parsons

Kelsie Walker

Rachel Williams

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Southern Illinoise University Athletics