Oct. 1, 2011
CARBONDALE, Ill. -
A small contingent of Illinois State swimmers got their first chance to compete during the 2011-12 campaign Friday and Saturday in a pair of distance-events hosted by Southern Illinois in Carbondale, Ill.
A group of 12 Redbird swimmers competed in the Saluki Miler Friday and concluded the weekend Saturday with the in the 5K Open Water race at Little Grassy Lake in Marion, Ill. Illinois State swimming and diving head coach Steve Paska was impressed with his group's performance in the first competitive meets of the season.
"These two meets were a great way for me and my staff to gauge where our distance swimmers are at right now, and I was happy with what I saw this weekend," Paska said. "I think we had some solid performances and found out that we have some swimmers that will be able to contribute in the distance events as we progress through the season in preparation for the Missouri Valley Conference meet in February."
At the Saluki Miler, the freshman duo of Valerie Jones and Cecilia Holmes finished in the top five in fourth and fifth places, respectively, in the1650-yard distance race at the Recreation Center pool. Jones was the highest ISU finisher in fourth place with a time of 17:41.04 and Holmes followed with her time of 17:59.27. Junior Danielle Schumacher was just behind her freshman teammates in sixth place overall with a time of 17:59.58 and the trio of junior Jeanette Nolte, senior Michele Stoeppelman and junior Morgan Buechele rounded out the top 10 finishers.
The open water race posed a whole different set of challenges Saturday for the swimmers, as cool morning temperatures and a stiff breeze made parts of the long swim difficult. However, Paska believed his group overcame the conditions and the challenges of the open water well.
"This race is very different from anything else we will swim in the rest of the season," Paska said. "The conditions were not ideal for everyone out there, but I think our swimmers reacted well and managed to post some strong times for a unique race like this. We enjoy coming to this race each year and we were pleased with the work we put in this weekend."
Schumacher led the way for the Redbirds in the open water race with a third-place finish overall in a time of 1:07:17.70. Stoeppelman (1:11:48.15) and Jones (1:11:58.60) finished in fifth and sixth place, respectively, and freshman Sammy Schuckles was seventh in a time of 1:12:40.82.
The Redbirds will return to the pool Saturday, Oct. 8, for the annual Red-White Intrasquad meet beginning at 3 p.m. at Horton Pool.
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