Results

The University of Evansville swimming and diving team split tonight’s dual meet against Eastern Illinois. The women’s squad rolled over the Panthers with a 232-64 victory while the men lost a close battle ending in a final score of 129-157.

“I’m very, very proud of this team,” said head coach Rickey Perkins. “I think the women showed up ready to race and it showed in their times. And I’m pleased with the way the men battled back. We fell behind towards the middle of the race but we caught up and fought until the meet was over.”

The women swept the board, winning all 16 events of the meet. Christina Schmidgall was the leading swimmer for the women, winning all three of her events. Alex Howard, Michea Reinitz, Melissa Thurman and Hannah Quast each ended the night with two first place finishes. Jill Enge also posted a first place finish, taking the top time in the 100-yard breaststroke. Diver Sadie Wells posted a season-best 279.25 score on the 3-meter boards while Jen Childers just missed qualifying for Zones as she won the 1-meter event with a score of 257.4.

The men took eight first place finishes overall. Alex Seward finished with three first place finishes on the night. His time of 49.96 was just split seconds away from beating the 100-yard butterfly record of 49.22. Carder LaBrake took first in the 1000-yard and 500-yard freestyle events. Diver Andy Balczo stayed hot on the boards, scoring a Zone-qualifying 310.05 on the 1-meter dive. Balczo also took first on the 3-meter.

“I know they’re tired and beaten up from training,” added Perkins, “so I’m extremely excited to see how well we competed and stepped up to the challenge.”