Saturday Results  -  Full Championship Results

CARBONDALE, Ill. – For the fourth time in his tenure at head coach at the University of Evansville, head swimming and diving coach Rickey Perkins was named the Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year as the Purple Aces wrapped up the MVC Championship in fourth place following the final races on Saturday.

"I love what these girls have done this year.  They set very high goals as a team and achieved all of them," Perkins said.  "We set five relay records, three individual records and scored over 400 points.  I am so pleased."
 
Keep track of GoPurpleAces.com for a full release of any All-Conference Swimmers for the Aces as well as full coverage of Perkins' fourth Valley Coach of the Year award.
 
Leading the way in the final day of the event for UE was Michelle Tipton.  She fell just hundredths of a second shy of taking the win in the 100 free.  Tipton posted an even 50.00 while Marissa Yontz of Illinois State finished at 49.93.  Also in that same event, Danielle Freeman took fourth place.  Tipton's finish was a school record.
 
In another close finish, the group of Abby Smith, Sam Montgomery, Danielle Freeman and Michelle Tipton took second in the 400 free relay.  Southern Illinois earned the win with a 3:23.81 while the Aces finished in 3:23.95.  Their effort smashed the previous school mark. 
 
Taylor Davidson had a stellar run in the 200 backstroke, taking second in the B-Final with a 2:05.26.  That time would have been good for 6^th in the A-Final.
 
Maja Magnusson had a solid performance in the 1650 free.  Her time of 18:00.00 was good for 12^th place in the finals.
 
Missouri State hung on for the team victory, scoring 815 points.  Southern Illinois was second at 720 while Illinois State was third at 613.  Evansville completed the championship in fourth at 437.
 
Saturday marked the final day of what was four stellar efforts for the Purple Aces as several records were broken.  Five relay marks and three individual records were broken.

On Wednesday, Evansville's group of Michaela Kent, Mackenzie Powell, Danielle Freeman and Abby Smith set the school mark in the 200 medley relay to open the tournament in Wednesday's final.  The quartet swam a time of 1:43.50 to finish in second place while posting the best time in school history.
 
The second school record of the opening day for UE came in the 800 free relay.  Freeman was part of the record-breakers once again, joining Michelle Tipton, Maja Magnusson and Jessi Hildebrand as the group registered a 7:35.42.
 
Thursday saw Smith, Montgomery, Freeman and Tipton set another mark in the 200 free relay.  They posted a time of 1:33.06, which is also the best-even MVC time.
 
On Friday, three more school records went by the wayside today including the 200 free as Tipson posted a 1:48.35.  Freeman earned the new school mark in the 100 fly with her time of 55.63.  In the 400 medley relay, Kent, Powell, Montgomery and Tipton registered a time of 3:47.87.