TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – In the final regular season competition for the Redbird swimmers, the Illinois State Swimming & Diving team tallied six wins in this afternoon's dual against the Indiana State Sycamores at the Vigo County Aquatics Center.
"As a team today, we were focusing on what we could control and improving on details from our last meet," head swimming coach Caitlin Hamilton said. "I was really happy with how we executed both of those things. The score may not show all the good things that came together today, but these Redbirds are in a great place moving into Championship season."
Freshman diver Eva Reyes led the way for the 'Birds, sweeping the diving competition with wins in both the 1-meter and 3-meter dives. Picking up her seventh and eighth wins of the year and extending her win-streak to four, Reyes scored a total of 256.50 in the 3-meter and 286.28 in the 1-meter.
In the pool, four different Redbirds notched victories in their respective events. Junior Makenna Licking kicked things off for ISU with a near five-second win in the 1,000-yard freestyle, clocking in with a time of 10:34.44.
The 'Birds put up a 1-2 finish in the 200-yard butterfly with junior Lauren Naeger and senior Sarah Hein taking the top two spots in the event. Naeger recorded a time of 2:05.25 to claim the victory, while Hein followed in 2:07.21 to take the silver.
Coming off her first Missouri Valley Conference Swimmer of the Week honor, sophomore Diana Walker picked up another win in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:08.92, almost two seconds ahead of the second-place finisher. Wrapping up ISU's first-place finishes was sophomore Olivia Gonder in the 200-yard IM, completing a narrow victory with a time of 2:07.76.
In addition to Hein's second-place finish in the 200-yard butterfly, three other Redbirds placed second in their respective events, including sophomore Cassidy Carey in the 100-yard backstroke (58.23), junior Madyson Morse in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:25.62) and junior diver Kamryn Blake in the 1-meter dive (247.73).
As a team, the 'Birds fell 113-186 to Indiana State.
UP NEXT
The Redbird divers will have one final regular season meet on February 5 at UIC in Chicago, Illinois.
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