With back-to-back meets both Friday and Saturday night, the Illinois State swimming and diving team will consider the tough competition at the Illini Classic this evening as a practice run to prepare themselves for tomorrows meet against Ball State.
Earlier in the week head coach
Steve Paska said he wanted to see how his team would perform with the pressure of two meets in two days. He did not want to overwork his swimmers but instead wanted them to gain competitive practice in order to better their individual performances.
The highlights of the meet were two fourth-place finishes by relay teams in the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:40.70) swam by co-captains Deborah Birrer, Lindsay Crowder, Brittany Erickson and senior Diana Cirstea, and the 400-yard medley relay (4:03.26) swam by Crowder, Erickson, Cirstea and Angie Rawlins.
The final scores of Fridays competition were Illinois 335, Missouri 231, Southern Illinois 186 and Illinois State 117.
The Illini Classic is a two-day meet in which the Redbirds will only participate in Fridays competition but host Ball State at 6pm in Horton Pool on Saturday.
