SIU swim and dive teams drop meet to Missouri State

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Morgan Timms

SIU junior Bryn Handley swims the 500-yard freestyle race Saturday, Dec. 3, 2016, during the Saluki women’s team’s 155-143 loss to Missouri State at Edward J. Shea Natatorium. Handley and her teammates, junior Kelsie Walker and senior Lauren Stockton, took the top three places in the 500-yard freestyle event. (Morgan Timms | @Morgan_Timms)

By Sean Carley

SIU swimming and diving’s first home meet of the season couldn’t recreate the magic of the last one meet in Edward J. Shea Natatorium.

The women’s team narrowly lost to Missouri State, 155-143, while the men’s team lost to the Bears, 195-93.

Across the 32 events, SIU tallied 11 first place finishes and 34 top-three finishes.

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The women’s team dominated the freestyle events of the meet.

Bryn Handley had a day to remember, winning each event she participated in: the 400-yard freestyle relay, the 100, 200 and 500-yard freestyle. The junior now has six event victories on the season.

Junior Kelsie Walker walked away with three individual top-two finishes — winning the 1,000-yard freestyle — and the team win in the 400-yard freestyle relay.

She was one of multiple Salukis to walk away with multiple top finishes.

Fellow junior McKenna Avery also had four top-three finishes, joining Walker on the 400-yard freestyle relay win as well as finishing second in the 50-yard freestyle and third in the 100-yard freestyle.

The 200-yard and 500-yard events in particular went about as well as possible for SIU.

The Salukis took first through fourth in the 200, with Handley, Walker, sophomore Jordan Ries and senior Lauren Stockton finishing before any of the Bears.

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Walker’s second-place finish in the 200 impressively came just two events after her win in the 1,000-yard event.

In the 500, Handley, Walker and Stockton took first through third.

Other Salukis to win their respective events were junior Rachel Williams on the one-meter dive and freshman Samantha Parsons in the 200-yard breaststroke.

Parsons continued her impressive season, after breaking the school record in that event less than two months ago. She also broke the school record in the 200-yard individual medley earlier this season.

On the men’s side, senior Andre Brilhante earned two event victories in the 50 and 100-yard freestyle. He also finished top-three in the 200-yard medley relay and the 200-yard freestyle.

Freshman Kai Hoffmann-Dussome won the one and three-meter diving events by at least 25 points each.

The men’s team took home 14 top-three finishes throughout the meet.

The last time SIU competed in the natatorium in February, the women’s team took home its first Missouri Valley Conference team title since 2007.

Neither SIU team competes again until 2017 until the women’s team hosts Arkansas-Little Rock on Jan. 14.

The men’s and women’s teams will travel to face Indiana State on Jan. 27 in Terre Haute.

Sports editor Sean Carley can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @SeanMCarley.

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