The SIUC women’s diving squad handed the Nebraska Cornhuskers a basket of defeat over the weekend as they won both 1 and 3-meter boards. However, both swimming and diving teams fell short of overall victory against the Universities of Nebraska and Kansas.

The women’s teams dealt an upset against Nebraska last year, but were overcome this year by the Cornhuskers191-125 and fell short against the Kansas Jayhawks losing 143-91.

Going into the weekend, I thought the Nebraska meet would be the better of the two, but we just didn’t perform as well as what we were capable of, said women’s coach Mark Kluemper. Out of the two meets, we swam better at Kansas, regardless of what the results say.

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Strong individual performances were what men’s coach Rick Walker was looking for going into last weekend and that is what he got from his squad.

Freshman Liam Weseloh had strong performances at Nebraska over the weekend, finishing first in the1000-meter freestyle with a time of 9:35.05 and 500-meter freestyle with a time of 4:41.08.

Steve Munz, a sophomore on the team, placed first in the 100-meter backstroke at Nebraska with a time of 52.54 and he won the 200-meter backstroke at Kansas with a time of 1:52.71.

The men’s teams lost to Nebraska 150-92 and to Kansas 143-95 despite valiant efforts by Weseloh and sophomore Steve Munz.

Jodi Mulvihill, Karla Gerzema, and Lisa Holland took the top three spots on the 1-meter board while Lisa and Karla topped the 3-meter board, helping the Salukis better their overall score against the Cornhuskers, who were ranked 9th in NCAA Division I.

The women’s diving squad faced tough competition from Kansas diver Michelle Rojohn, who is an All-American and an NCAA finalist the past two years. SIUC’s Karla Gerzema fared well against Rojohn finishing behind her on both boards.

I thought we dove well at both Kansas and Nebraska, said coach Dave Ardrey. We just want to get to a strong level of competition and stay there.

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Both men and women teams will travel to the University of Illinois for the Dual Meet Extravaganza on the weekend of Nov. 10 to try and better their 2-2 record.