The Saluki swimming and diving teams traveled over the weekend to Champaign and the land of the Fighting Illini where the women swimmers could not hold up to the Big Ten squad from Illinois, and the men exacted revenge on last year’s disappointing loss to Southwest Missouri State.

The SIUC coaching staff continues to reiterate the plan to use the dual meets as stepping stones for the most important competition of the year the Missouri Valley Conference Championships in December.

One constant remains after the weekend of competition the performances of the Saluki diving squads under the direction of coach Dave Ardrey.

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Sophomore Alex Wright had a big performance over the weekend finishing first overall on the 1-meter board with a score of 500.10 and second on the 3-meter board with 489.40 points.

For Alex, reaching 500 points is a benchmark, Ardrey said. That gives him the added confidence to know that the dives he is doing and the level of competition he is performing in is starting to pay off for him.

I think his performance will give him the confidence needed going into the Missouri Valley Conference weekend knowing that he could dominate the meet, Ardrey said.

Going into the MVC Championships with the 500-point mark under his belt, Wright feels that he will be able to relax more.

Wright has already qualified for the zone competition and with his continual progress hopes to get to the NCAA Championships in the spring of 1996.

I didn’t even come close to those kind of points until late in the season last year, so this is a confidence builder, Wright said. Last year I just missed going to the NCAA Championships and this year I want to get in there.

Six schools competed on each board with the scoring made up of the best individual dives from each diver. This scoring process is the same for championship meets such as the MVC Championship meet.

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On the women’s 1-meter board, Saluki junior Jodi Mulvihill placed third overall with a score of 355.75 while classmate Lisa Holland finished fourth overall on the 3-meter board with a score of 406.60.

I think that we’re making very steady, sure progress, Ardrey said. Every week our scores are better and every week our dives are better.

There were a few bright spots for the swim teams despite losses to the Universities of Missouri, Kansas and the women’s loss to Illinois.

Friday night, while competing against Illinois, senior Melanie Davis won the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:07.13.

Davis also won the 100 and 200-yard breaststroke Sunday against NIU and CU with times of 1:07.99 and 2:24.62.

Jeffery Clark was the top performer for the men’s swim team on Sunday, walking away with top performances in the 50-yard freestyle (21:05), 100-yard freestyle (47:13) and a first place finish on the 400-yard freestyle relay team with a time of 3:08.62.

The men’s swim team improved their overall record to 6-4 while the women fell to 4-6.

The next meet for the teams will be the hosting of the MVC Championships held at the Recreation Center Pool, Dec. 1-3.