Men’s and women’s swimming recap 15

SIUC men’s swimming coach Rick Walker now knows his team will not allow distractions to mess up its focus.

In what could have been a blowout, the SIUC men’s swimming and diving team found itself all tied up going into the final race of the night against the University of Missouri Friday, but the Salukis came up short against the Tigers.

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But while the men’s team fell to a close defeat, the Tigers easily handled the women’s team Friday in Columbia, Mo.

The Saluki men were knocked off 126-117 to move their record to 1-2 in dual meets this year, but the Lady Tigers stomped on the Saluki women 162-80. The women drop to 1-2 in dual meets this season.

Walker said the team had to overcome a series of obstacles, including a 75-minute late bus and a shortened warm-up time, which disrupted the team’s performance early in the meet.

We had a lot of things going against us, Walker said. The first half of the meet we were really flat, but it was something that was just out of our control.

Walker said the team struggled early in the meet, but made a strong comeback in the last half of the meet.

We were virtually out of the meet at the halfway point, Walker said. But we came all the way back to tie it up going into the last relay.

Walker said the team’s effort was a pleasant surprise after all the pre-race difficulties.

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In my mind, I couldn’t be any prouder with a team that lost, Walker said. It really showed their character to come back like that.

Individual winners for the men included Liam Weseloh, who finished in first place in the 1,000-meter freestyle with a time of 9 minutes and 39.24 seconds.

Ryan Gallagher placed first in the 200-meter freestyle (1:44.27), while Jeff Clark took home gold in the 100-meter freestyle (47.93).

The 200-meter backstroke was dominated by Steve Munz who finished (1:53.62), and Corne Prozesky, who rounded out the first-place finishers with a victory in the 200-meter breaststroke (2:05.71).

In the diving competition, SIUC diver Alex Wright finished in first place out of five divers in the 1-meter competition with a score of 282.6. Wright also won the 3-meter competition with a score of 229.2.

The women’s team had two individual winners in the meet Kirsty Albertyn in the 200-meter freestyle (1:57.0) and Melanie Williams in the 200-meter breaststroke (2:27.21).

Albertyn said the conditions of the meet affected the team’s performance.

The pool had only six lanes, so it was really full (with swimmers) when we were warming up, she said. The long bus ride and the delays also made the meet difficult.

Albertyn attributes her first-place finish to her tough work ethic.

It was just the way I swam the race, Albertyn said. I had more desire to win than they did.

In the women’s diving competition, Karla Gerzema finished first in the 3-meter contest (262.35) out of six divers and finished in second place in the 1-meter competition (227.55) out of six divers.

The men’s and women’s swimming team will be in action Friday at the University of Illinois Dual Meet Extravaganza in Champaign.