200-Yard Medley Relay Results
800-Yard Freestyle Relay Results

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Two swims.  Two school records.  That's how the University of Evansville women's swimming and diving team opened up competition at the 2022 Missouri Valley Conference Swimming & Diving Championships in Iowa City, Iowa on Wednesday night.

Evansville opened the competition with a school-record performance in the 200-yard Medley Relay, as the quartet of sophomore Iryna Tsesiul (Minsk, Belarus), junior Sage Moore (Lexington, Ohio/Lexington), freshman Sveva Brugnoli (Rome, Italy) and senior Jessie Steele (Houston, Texas/Klein) clocked in with a time of 1:42.62.  It bettered UE's previous school record time by nearly a half second, and qualified the group for the National Invitational Championships in March by reaching the CSCAA "Automatic" time standard of 1:43.99.

Then, about 40 minutes later, Evansville broke the school record in the 800-yard Freestyle Relay by nearly four seconds with a time of 7:31.74.  Junior Sarah Jahns (Lilburn, Ga./Parkview), senior Alexa Markl (Scottsdale, Ariz./Notre Dame Prep), Steele and junior Sonsoles Aguayo (Jerez, Spain) teamed up to break the previous record.  Aguayo was key for UE, as she came home with a time of 1:52.38 in the anchor leg to help UE catch Little Rock's anchor to place fifth overall.  Evansville finds itself in a tie for fourth place with Southern Illinois after two events.

"Tonight was a great start for the ladies," said UE head swimming coach Stuart Wilson.  "Confidence is only going to grow as the meet goes on into the weekend.

"It is a good time right now to celebrate our swim tonight, but we need to start looking ahead to tomorrow's swims."

The Missouri Valley Conference Swimming & Diving Championships will continue on Thursday, with preliminary swims scheduled for 11 a.m. and the finals set for 6 p.m.  Thursday will feature action in the 500-yard freestyle, the 200-yard IM, the 50 free, the 200-yard freestyle relay, and competition on the one-meter diving boards.