ELKHART, Ind. – The University of Missouri-St. Louis men's and women's swimming teams opened competition at the Great Lakes Valley Conference Swimming and Diving Championships on Tuesday evening at the Elkhart Aquatic Center in Elkhart, Ind. The women finished fifth in the 800-free relay while the men were seventh.
The quartet of
Romina Itzkovich, Justice Beard, Ella Lantz and
Isabella Gruidl swam a season best time of 7:35.88 which was over nine seconds better than its seed time. UMSL's second 800-free relay team of
Jasmine Tilly,
Chiara Alberola,
Cheyanne Godleski and
Ashleigh Baros finished 16th at 7:58.50 which was nearly six seconds faster than its entry time.
The Tritons scored 72 points in the event. Drury won the event in 7:17.90 and holds the lead in the team standings after night one with 96 points. UMSL is currently in sixth place.
For the men, the Triton 800-free relay quartet of
Hendrik Bechtel,
Metehan Saruhan,
Aaron Wicklund and
Conley Savage finished with a time of 6:42.78 as it shaved off nearly 10 seconds from its previous best this season and picked up 46 points. The second squad of
Mattia Nardi,
Joan Cortadellas Llubera,
Mason Stimson and
Ryan Conner finished 16th at 6:50.23 dropping 4.5 seconds off its time and picked up 22 points.
The Tritons scored 68 points in the event. McKendree won the event in 6:21.26 and holds the lead in the team standings after night one with 94 points. UMSL is currently in sixth place.
Wednesday's competition at the Elkhart Aquatic Center will feature the 200-yard individual medley, 50-yard freestyle, 1,000-yard freestyle and 200-yard medley relay. There will be two preliminary rounds in the morning for the 200-IM and 50-freestyle, while the other two events will be straight finals. Prelim action begins at 9 a.m. (CST) with the finals session scheduled to get underway at 4:30 p.m. (CST).
