EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The University of Missouri-St. Louis men's and women's swimming teams recorded five top eight finishes highlighted by Justice Beard's thrilling win in the 200 freestyle on Thursday at the Great Lakes Valley Conference Swimming and Diving Championships at the Deaconess Aquatic Center in Evansville, Ind.

UMSL's swim head into Friday's action in third place with 490 points and are 108 points ahead of fourth place Lewis while the Triton men are battling with Missouri S&T and Quincy for fourth place. The Miners are currently in fourth with 409 points followed by the Hawks with 337 and the Tritons are at 305 after Thursday's events.

The finals session started well for the women as Audrey Lantz recorded her second third place finish at these championships with her finish in the 100 fly. She set broke her own school record in the morning prelims to earn a provisional cut for the NCAA meet and then swam a time of 55.49 seconds in the finals.

Romina Itzkovich won the bonus final in the 100 fly in a time of 56.43 seconds while Callie Clinton was eighth at 58.53 seconds.

Libby Smith followed with a seventh place finish in the 400 individual medley with a time of 4:34.48. Stella Garrison finished eighth in the consolation final in a time of 4:46.39 while Uxue Ortiz de Pinedo and Sophi Whitesell were second and seventh in the bonus final of the 400 IM at 4:42.21 and 4:50.26 respectively.

The race of the evening came in the championship final of the 200 free as Beard came back to out touch Drury's Belen Morales by .06 of a second to win her second event of the meet and fifth of her career. She finished in a time of 1:48.90 and improved her national cut time. Kelsey Roth finished eighth in the consolation final of the 200 free at 1:56.76 and Kayla Rompala took seventh in the bonus of the 200 free with a time of 1:57.59.

UMSL's 400-yard medley relay squad of Ella Lantz, Garrison, A. Lantz and Itzkovich finished third with a season best time of 3:47.64.

On the men's side, Lathan Parks turned in his second top eight finish at the championships finishing eighth in the championship final of the 100 fly in a time of 48.66 seconds. Kaleb Suitor was second in the bonus final of the 100 fly at 49.37 seconds.

Aaron Wicklund was the runner-up in the consolation final of the 400 IM with a time of 3:56.02 while Mattia Nardi was eighth at 4:02.43. Mikael Larsson took seventh in the bonus final of the 400 IM in a time of 4:06.02.

Donald Saunders was seventh in the bonus final in the 200 free with a time of 1:41.21.

The Tritons 400-yard medley relay quartet of Saunders, Landon Hanesworth, Suitor and Parks took ninth in a time of 3:19.98.

Friday's competition at the Deaconess Aquatic Center features the 500 free, 100 back, 100 breast and 200 fly. There will be four preliminary rounds in the morning for those events. Prelim action gets underway at 10 a.m. with the finals scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. Friday's final session also includes the 200 free relay.