Season opens this weekend with two meets

The Salukis Swimming and Diving team opens its 2017-18 season this weekend with two events. The first will be a dual meet against Lindenwood University on Friday at home, the second event is the CSCAA National Collegiate Open Water Swimming Championship in Lawrence, Kansas.

The team is coming off a 2016-17 season in which Southern's men's and women's teams won a total of eight events on the to a second place finish at the MVC Women's Swimming and Diving Championships and a fifth place finish at the MAC Men's Swimming and Diving Championships.

The Salukis will return five Seniors to the men's team including Joao Facciotti, Alex Crawford and Michael Wolfe. Facciotti and Crawford were members of the 200-yard medley relay team that took home silver at the MAC Men's Swimming and Diving Championships in 2017. Facciotti is the school record holder in the 100-yard backstroke and butterfly and the MAC Conference meet record holder in the 100-yard butterfly.

The team will also return Kai Hoffman-Dussome, the 2017 MAC Freshman Diver of the Year. He placed eighth in the one-meter dive at the MAC Conference Championship last year.

On the women's side, Southern is bringing back 11 seniors and five first-team All-MVC Selections to a team that finished second at the 2017 Conference Championships. Among the returners are senior swimmers Bryn Handley, Jordan Ries and Nicole Fuller, three conference champions. Handley won the MVC title in the 200, 500 and 1650-yard freestyle. Ries, Handley and Fuller were all on the 800-yard freestyle relay conference champion team.

Southern also returns two strong divers to the women's team in Rachel Williams and Lani Cieszynski. Williams was an All-Conference selection in 2016 and 17 as well as third place finisher in the three-meter dive in 2017 at the MVC Championships. Cieszynski won the 3-meter consolation dive at the MVC Championships as a freshman.

Southern will be led into the 2017-18 season by men's team captains Michael Wolfe, Alex Crawford and Chris Cole and women's captains Penny Bowser, Chandler Ott, Jordan Ries and Rachel Williams.

Head coach Rick Walker returns for his 31^st season with the Salukis and the long-time coach is excited to get the season underway.

"I'm excited because I think we have a lot of areas where we have the potential to be much, much better," Walker said. "I think we've figured out how to rest people like Sam Parsons better to have her ready for conference. Kelsie Walker is back from an injury; she didn't even swim at conference last year. We're starting out with the expectation from our athletes on the men's and women's team that everyone has the potential to do much better than they did last year."

The Salukis open the season on Friday by welcoming a talented Division II team, Lindenwood University, into the Edward J. Shea Natatorium. Lindenwood's men's and women's teams both made trips to the NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving National Championships in 2017. The women finished fifth at the NCAAs and the men were seventh.

As many as nine freshmen swimmers and divers could get their first taste of live action against Lindenwood. Assistant coach Elise Knoche said that this will be a special moment for the freshmen and the staff is looking forward to seeing the young Salukis in action.

"I'm excited to see them all swim," Knoche said. "We've had two weeks of practice so we know what they've done there. Going into a meet is a different environment. Even though we might have Ideas of how people respond in practice, anything can happen in their first official college meet and that's pretty exciting."

SIU vs. Lindenwood starts at 5 p.m. on Friday at the Edward J. Shea Natatorium in the SIU Student Recreation Center.

On Saturday, Rick Walker will take distance swimmers Kelsie Walker, Bryn Handley, Jordan Ries, Nicole Fuller, Chris Cole and Kevin Kluge to Lawrence, Kansas for the CSCAA National Collegiate Open Water Swimming Championship. The event takes place in Lonestar Lake and features five, 10 and 15 kilometer open water races. The Salukis will compete in the five kilometer race.

Kansas University hosts the event and swimmers from Texas A&M, Missouri and Connecticut, just to name a few programs, will all compete against the Salukis in the unique open water event.

Walker said he is looking for his swimmers to show confidence in the open water race.

"This is a difficult event. In a pool you've only got so much time, so there isn't a lot of room for mistakes," Walker said. "In an open water event that is five kilometers long, often times there are no mistakes. If there are you can correct some of them. Some mistakes you think you made actually turn into an advantage. I just want them to stay calm and collected and just be consistent from start to finish. It will be a fast start and finish. Consistency will win it."

While the distance swimmers will be separate from the rest of the team, Knoche said the team will show support for each other despite the distance between the two groups.

"We're in two different places, which is a challenge for the weekend because our team does a great job supporting each other," she said. "The group that's here will support the group in Kansas and the group in Kansas will support the group here. We're so supportive. The team knows they're supported no matter where they're competing."

The Salukis take on Lindenwood at home at 5 p.m. on Friday in the opening meet of the 2016-17 season. The meet takes place at Edward J. Shea Natatorium and admission is free to all spectators.

The CSCAA National Collegiate Open Water Swimming Championship takes place Saturday morning with the women's race starting at 8:30 a.m. and the men's race at 10 a.m. For all of the updates regarding Saluki Swimming and Diving follow the team on Twitter @SIU_SwimDive, on Instagram @SIUSwimDive and on Facebook at Saluki Swimming and Diving.

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Players Mentioned

Penny Bowser

Chris Cole

Alex Crawford

Joao Facciotti

Nicole Fuller

Bryn Handley

Kevin Kluge

Chandler Ott

Jordan Ries

Kelsie Walker

Rachel Williams

Michael Wolfe

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