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 evening at the Deaconess Aquatic Center in Evansville, Ind.

Women's swimmer Justice Beard was named the GLVC's Women's Swimmer of the Year while head coach Tony Hernandez was named the Women's Swimming Coach of the Year.

For Beard, it's her second career GLVC major award as she was named the Freshman of the Year at the 2024 GLVC meet. The junior from Paducah, Ky., scored 128 points during the championships as she won the 200-yard, 500-yard, 1,000-yard and 1650-yard freestyle races. She set three school records and a GLVC record in the 500 free and was also part of the 200-yard free relay, 400-yard free relay and 800-yard free relay teams that all finished fourth in those events.

Hernandez was voted by his peers as the Coach of the Year after guiding UMSL's women to a third-place finish at the championships with 918 points. It's the most points the Tritons have scored during the women's competition at the conference championships. It's his second Coach of the Year accolade as he also received the honor after the 2024 championship meet.

On Saturday's final day, Beard started things off winning the 1650 free with a time of 16:31.13 and Chiara Alberola came in 14th place in the event in a time of 18:29.37. Beard's time was good for an automatic berth to next month's NCAA championship meet.

Audrey Lantz won the consolation final of the 100-yard free with an NCAA 'B' standard time of 51.93 seconds. Kayla Rompala and Madison Bottorff took third and seventh in the bonus final of the 100 free in times of 52.65 and 53.49 seconds respectively.

Ella Lantz finished seventh in the championship final of the 200-yard backstroke at 2:03.61 while Aeri La finished eighth in the bonus final of the 200 back in a time of 2:13.85.

Uxue Ortiz de Pinedo finished second in the consolation final of the 200-yard breaststroke in a time of 2:19.38.

UMSL's 400-yard free relay squad of A. Lantz, Romina Itzkovich, E. Lantz and Beard finished fourth with a time of 3:25.74 while it's second team in the event of Kelsey Roth, Ashleigh Baros, Bottorff and Rompala was 13th at 3:34.01.

UIndy's women were the team champions finishing with 1,882 points to edge out Drury for the title by 32 points.

For the UMSL men, Aaron Wicklund and Mattia Nardi finished second and fourth in the consolation final of the 200 breast. Wicklund had a time of 2:01.02 and Nardi came in at 2:01.95. Dylan Bonnett and Harrison Miller swam in the bonus final of the 200 breast. Bonnett was second in a time of 2:03.45 and Miller finished seventh at 2:07.71.

Mikael Larsson took second in the consolation final of the 200 back at 1:49.54 and Kaleb Suitor took eighth in the bonus final of the 200 back with a time of 1:52.99.

In the 100 free, Lathan Parks was seventh in the consolation final at 45.40 seconds while Gentry Comstock was the runner-up in the bonus final of the 100 free in a time of 45.61 seconds.

Carson Ring finished 22nd in the 1650 free at 16:45.74.

The 400-yard free relay foursome of Comstock, Parks, Joan Cortadellas Llubera and Wicklund was seventh in a time of 3:01.61 while the quartet of Nardi, Landon Hanesworth, Suitor and Donald Saunders finished 15th at 3:02.98.

The Triton men finished eighth out of 11 teams at the meet with 552 points. UIndy won the men's title with a total of 1,853.50 points. Drury was second with 1,632 points and McKendree finished third with 1,365 points.

UMSL's Stella Garrison and Gabriel Wells were recognized during the awards ceremony as the Tritons nominees for the GLVC's James R. Spalding Sportsmanship award.