In a three-day long event that featured some of the top nationally ranked teams in the country, the Saluki women swimmers placed seventh out of eight teams, while the men finished sixth out of eight teams.

On the men’s side, the No.1 Indiana Hoosiers team fell to the No. 3 Florida Gators by a 150+ point margin.

In the women’s competition, the No. 8 Hoosiers won on with a comfortable 200+ point lead over the No. 14 Gators.

With such competition that featured as many as 13 Olympians in the pool together, the Salukis were unable to separate themselves from other schools.

The Indiana team notably sent three swimmers to the 2016 Rio De Janeiro Olympic Games, who all won medals for Team USA

SIU sophomore diver Beibei Ji finished seventh in the 3-meter dive event, as she posted a final score of 277.35.

In the preliminary for the 1-meter diving event, sophomore Baobao Ji recorded a score of 269.15, the fifth-highest score of all divers. She finished 11th in the 1-meter dive final with a 238.25 score, while her sister Beibei finished ninth in the event with a 250.05 score.

In the 800-yard freestyle relay event, the Saluki men earned a seventh-place finish. The team of sophomore Kevin Kluge, juniors Chris Cole and Nolan Fahey and senior Michael Wolfe posted a final time of 6:50.33.

Senior freestyler Bryn Handley finished sixth in the women’s 1650-yard freestyle event, as she posted a time of 16:34.46.
She also finished 13th in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:48.53.

Sophomore Samantha Parsons finished 14th with a final time of 2:17.17 in the 200-yard women’s breaststroke event.

In the 400-yard freestyle relay event, the Saluki women finished in seventh-place with a final time of 3:29.56. The team included sophomore Rita Naude and seniors Bryn Handley, Chandler Ott, and McKenna Avery.

On the men’s side of the 400-yard freestyle relay event, SIU finished fifth in 3:05.41. Swimmers included sophomore Matt Ciezczak, junior Reilly Garman and seniors Nolan Hillard and Alex Crawford.

The same team — with the subtraction of Hillard and the addition of senior Joao Facciotti — had success in the 200-yard freestyle relay event. The squad finished in sixth-place with a final time of 1:23.94.

The women’s 400-yard medley team finished fifth for Southern, as they recorded a 3:50.85 final time for the event. Sophomores Rita Naude and Laura Carver, junior Emma Brazeau and senior Bryn Handley comprised the team for Southern.

In the 400-yard medley event, the Saluki men’s team claimed a sixth-place finish in a 3:23.48 final time. The team included sophomores Matt Ciezczak and Chris Phillips, junior Alex Netzel and senior Alex Crawford.

In the 200-yard medley relay event, Netzel was replaced by Facciotti and the men finished seventh with a 1:31.85 time.

The Saluki swimmers and divers will freeze action heading into winter break, as their next meet does not come until January 13th where the women will travel to Arkansas-Little Rock. Start time is still to be announced.

Sports writer Ryan Demer can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @RyanDemer_DE 
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