EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The University of Evansville swimming teams opened up the season Saturday morning against Southern Illinois with a twist to the meet format.
 
The teams did a relays only competition to begin the regular season.  The Salukis took both victories, defeating the men by a 190-118 final while the SIU women earned a 188-142 win.
 
"It was a very exciting meet. We started out strong and had a lot of great relays," head coach Rickey Perkins said.  "The women won the first two relays and the last relays, which is a first. The men were awesome. They swam very fast and winning the 400 Free Relay was great."
 
The women's team started out strong, with a victory in both the 3x100 Butterfly Relay and the 3x100 Backstroke Relay. Kristen Myers, Danielle Freeman, and Emma Hennessy edged out the second place SIU relay by over five seconds with a final time of 2:55.00. Defending MVC 100 Backstroke champion Michaela Kent led her relay of Taylor Davidson and Sam Gowdy to a 2:54.36 win.
 
The women also competed in a tight race in the 400 Freestyle Relay. Freshmen Kristy Kupfer, Ashton Adams, Aine Scholand, and sophomore Madi Jones touched in second place with 3:39.14, just shy of SIU's 3:36.43. The women rounded out their meet with a victory in the 200 Freestyle Relay. In a close race, Kent, Kupfer, Myers, and Freeman managed to stay ahead of SIU's 1:39.44 with a winning time of 1:38.83.
 
The men's team saw strong performances as well. The top performance of the day came with the 400 Freestyle Relay. Freshman Brandt Hudson teamed up with sophomores Jared Sutphin and Blake Wheeler with a strong finish from junior Everett Plocek to take the win with a time of 3:13.29. The men also had strong performances from freshman Paul Cozzens, junior Prescott Marcy, and sophomore Matt Duke in the 3x100 Butterfly Relay touching in at 2:39.17, and in the 500 Freestyle Relay of Duke, Plocek, Hudson, and freshman Zach Sagan with a time of 4:17.08, a mere three seconds behind SIU's winning performance.

Both squads are back in action on October 21 on the road at Valparaiso.
 

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