NORMAL, Ill. -- Illinois State swim & dive heads to Terre Haute, Indiana, on Friday for a dual meet with two-time defending Missouri Valley Conference Champion Indiana State. Events are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. ET at Vigo County Aquatic Center.
"Indiana State is a premier program in our conference ," said head coach Ryan Evans. "They've done a great job over the last few years of building a solid team across the board. They really have no weak spot. It's going to be a challenge, but that's what I wanted to do with this team is challenge them and show them what the best teams look like."
SCOUTING INDIANA STATE
The Sycamores successfully defended their MVC title last season, totaling 1,236 total points across the four-day meet to top Southern Illinois (1,161) and Missouri State (1,117) on their way to claiming the second title in program history. Indiana State had 10 athletes earn MVC First Team honors, while an additional 10 athletes received recognition on the Honorable Mention squad. Nine athletes, including six who earned first-team honors, are back on the roster this season, giving the Sycamores tremendous depth in each event.
LAST TIME OUT
Illinois State is coming off a season-opening 187-69 victory over Quincy University. The Redbirds collected 12 individual event victories from seven different swimmers and added wins in both relay events. Four Redbirds swept their individual events, including Freya Hingston (100 fly, 200 fly), Hailey Fris (100 back, 200 back), Alexandra Davis (50 free, 100 free) and Ava Ostendorf (100 breast, 200 breast).
With the season officially underway, the Redbirds have shifted their focus toward more event-specific training as they prepare for the remainder of the season.
"This week, we've started to do a lot more work trying to hit specific goal times in practice," said Evans. "The first six weeks or so was a little bit more general, and now that we're in meet season, we're really trying to be intentional with what we're doing and trying to make training much more specific for their best events."
MVC SWIMMER OF THE WEEK
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.
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.
"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."
ORDER OF EVENTS
200 Medley Relay, 1000 Free, 200 Free, 100 Back, 100 Breast, 200 Fly, 50 Free, 1M Diving, 100 Free, 200 Back, 200 Breast, 500 Free, 100 Fly, 3M Diving, 200 IM, 400 Free Relay
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