EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Justice Beard has been the star of the 2026 Great Lakes Valley Conference Swimming and Diving Championships winning her third event of the week on Friday evening at the Deaconess Aquatic Center. She was one of seven University of Missouri-St. Louis swimmers to finish in the top eight in Friday's final session.
Swimming in the first championship final of the evening, Beard recorded nine of her 10 laps with sub 0:30 splits on the way to breaking the GLVC meet record in the 500 free which she set at last year's championship meet by more than two seconds at 4:48.17. Her time was also good enough for an 'A' standard qualifying time for the NCAA Championship in March.
Libby Smith joined Beard on the podium after the 500 free with her sixth place finish in the event with a time of 5:06.59.
Kelsey Roth finished eighth in the bonus final of the 500 free in a time of 5:16.50.
Ella Lantz took third in the 100 back final at 55.29 and improved her 'B' standard time for the NCAAs in the event. She dropped 0.36 seconds from her time in the morning preliminary race.
Madison Bottorff and
Aeri La finished second and sixth in the bonus final of the 100 back with times of 59.24 and 1:00.70 respectively.
Stella Garrison was seventh in the consolation final of the 100 breast at 1:05.36 while
Romina Itzkovich and
Uxue Ortiz de Pinedo went 1-2 in the bonus final of the 100 breast. Itzkovich touched the wall 0:16 seconds ahead of Pinedo.
Chiara Alberola and
Callie Clinton finished fourth and fifth in the consolation final of the 200 fly with times of 2:13.48 and 2:13.53 respectively.
UMSL's 200-yard free relay squad of
Audrey Lantz, Bottorff, Itzkovich and Beard dropped 1.68 seconds off their time to finish fourth overall with a time of 1:34.03.
On the men's side,
Mikael Larsson finished sixth in the bonus final of the 500 free in a time of 4:37.83. He dropped three seconds from his prelim time.
Donald Saunders took seventh in the bonus final of the 100 back with a time of 51.67 seconds.
Gabriel Wells,
Dylan Bonnett and
Landon Hanesworth swam in the consolation final of the 100 breast. Wells finished sixth at 56.24 and was followed by Bonnett and Hanesworth with times of 56.46 and 56.72 respectively.
Aaron Wicklund was third in the bonus final of the 100 breast at 56.49 seconds.
Mattia Nardi was third while
Adam Campbell finished sixth in the consolation final of the 200 fly. Nardi finished at 1:49.20 while Campbell touched the wall at 1:50.98.
Kaleb Suitor was eighth in the bonus final of the 200 fly in a time of 1:55.91.
Heading into Saturday's final day the Triton women are in third place with a score of 719 points and are 96.5 points ahead of fourth place Lewis. UMSL's men are in seventh place heading into Saturday having tallied 405 points and are two points ahead of eighth place Rockhurst but trail the sixth place Flyers by 45.5 points.
Saturday's competition at the Deaconess Aquatic Center features the 100 free, 200 back, 200 breast and 1650 free. There will be four preliminary rounds in the morning for the 100 free, 200 back and 200 breast. The 1650 free will take place during the afternoon session with the final heat for both genders leading off Saturday evening's final. Prelim action gets underway at 10 a.m. with the finals scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. Saturday's final session also includes the 400 free relay.
