ST. LOUIS – The University of Missouri-St. Louis swimming program claimed a couple of major awards at the conclusion of the Great Lakes Valley Conference's Swimming and Diving Championships on Saturday night at the Deaconess Aquatic Center in Evansville, Ind.
Women's swimmer
Justice Beard was named the GLVC's Freshman of the Year while head coach
Tony Hernandez was named the Women's Swimming Coach of the Year. The Tritons also claimed the men's and women's team sportsmanship award.
Beard scored 90 points at the championships as she won the 1,000-yard and 1,650-yard freestyle and finished ninth in the 500-free. She was also a member of the school's record setting 800-yard free relay squad that finished fifth on Tuesday's opening night.
Hernandez was voted by as his peers as the Coach of the Year after guiding UMSL's women to a fifth-place finish at the championships with a total of 865 points. It's the most points the Tritons have scored during the women's competition at the conference championships. It's his first Coach of the Year accolade.
On Saturday's final day, Beard started things off shattering her own school record in the 1,650 by 16.24 seconds and improved her NCAA provisional qualifying time in the event. Her time is currently second fastest in Division II.
Rebecca Bechtel finished 13th in the event in a time of 17:50.49.
UMSL had two swimmers finish in the top eight in the 200-yard backstroke.
Ella Lantz finished fourth with a school record time of 2:02.30 and her time was good enough to earn a provisional mark for the national meet.
Kelsey Roth finished eighth at 2:06.63.
Isabella Gruidl won the C-final in the 200 back with a time of 2:07.16 while
Mackenzie Greenley was third in the C-final at 2:09.25.
Zara Konstapel finished seventh in the A-final of the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:19.67 and
Ashleigh Baros came in sixth in the C-final at 2:27.97.
Audrey Lantz and
Kate Nelson finished third and seventh in the C-final of the 100-yard freestyle with times of 52.03 and 52.62 seconds respectively.
The Triton 400-yard free relay squad of A. Lantz,
Ava Boehning, E. Lantz and Nelson finished fifth in a school record time of 3:27.56. UMSL's second team in the event of
Madison Bottorff, Bechtel, Gruidl and Beard was 14th at 3:36.30.
On the men's side, the Tritons finished sixth at the championships with 643 points.
Hendrik Bechtel had UMSL's highest finish of the night coming in fourth in the 1,650 free with a time of 15:37.86 and improved his NCAA provisional qualifying time by 6.6 seconds.
Mason Stimson and
Carson Ring finished 16th and 17th in the event with times of 16:33 and 16:33.58 respectively.
The Triton 400-yard free relay squad of
David Reynolds,
Jaxson Mahlstadt, Stimson and
Aaron Wicklund finished ninth at 3:06.19. UMSL's second team in the event of
Elvin Sabanadzovic,
Ethan Boehle,
Isaac Scherman and Bechtel was 18th in a time of 3:08.29.
Conley Savage and
Guillem Masjuan Roca finished third and fifth in the B-final of the 200-back with times of 1:49.18 and 1:49.58 respectively.
Wicklund came in third of the B-final in the 200 breast at 2:02.11 while
Dylan Bonnett was seventh in the C-final with a time of 2:06.32.
Reynolds took second in the C-final of the 100 free in a time of 45.77 seconds.
The Tritons return to the pool next Saturday competing at Drury's Last Chance Qualifier at 1 p.m. at the Breech Pool in Springfield, Mo.
