ST. LOUIS — Illinois State freshman Freya Hingston was named the Missouri Valley Conference Women's Swimmer of the Week, the league office announced Wednesday. It is the first MVC weekly honor of her career and the first for the Redbirds this season. Hingston is also the first Redbird freshman to earn an MVC weekly honor since Giulia Basco won MVC Freshman of the Week on Oct. 12, 2022.
"I'm really happy with her debut performance, and I'm excited for her to continue to improve," said head coach Ryan Evans. "I think it was a great start. We talked about some things that we can be better at and try to implement in training, but I'm very honored and excited that in my first meet we had someone named swimmer of the week."
Hingston, a native of Auckland, New Zealand, earned the weekly honor following her performance in Illinois State's 187-69 dual-meet victory over Quincy last Friday.
In her first collegiate meet, Hingston recorded four first-place finishes and scored 18 points. She won both of her individual events, touching the wall first in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 58.41 and the 200-yard butterfly in 2:10.02.
The freshman also helped the Redbirds to a pair of relay victories. She swam the butterfly leg of the winning 200-yard medley relay, recording a 25.77 split, and led off the winning 200-yard freestyle relay with a 25.35 split.
Hingston and the Redbirds are back in action on Friday against conference foe Indiana State. The dual meet begins at 6 p.m. CT at the Vigo County Aquatic Center.
