Results
MACOMB, Ill. — The Western Illinois men's and women's swimming and diving teams both fell in their season-opening dual meet with Missouri State Friday, Oct. 23, despite some strong individual performances throughout the day.
The Bears outscored the Fighting Leathernecks women's squad 161-112 while the men's team fell by a 156-120 margin.
Western Illinois coach Greg Naumann said he was pleased with the way the Fighting Leathernecks women's squad opened the meet with a win in the 400-yard medley relay. The team of Laura Dinkelmann, Alayna Colley, Jamie Grau and Taylor Martin won in a time of 4:09.01.
“Straight off the bat, the 400 medley relay on the women's side stepped by beating Missouri State by three one hundredths of a second. That was definitely the right way to set the meet up for us,” Naumann said. “It set the tone for the meet that we might be a smaller team, but we've still got some firepower that other teams will have to deal with as we go throughout the year.”
Dinkelmann had a big day for Western, picking up wins in both the 100 and 200-yard butterfly. The senior took the 100 in a time of 1:00.57 and swam the 200 in a time of 2:09.90.
Other Leathernecks women's swimmers picking up wins included Martin in the 50-yard freestyle in a time of 25.40, Grau in the 200-yard breaststroke in a time of 2:32.98 and Lauren Trondle in the 500-yard freestyle in a time of 5:26.39. Western also won the 200-yard freestyle relay in a time of 1:43.54 with a team comprised of Colley, Grau, Trondle and Martin.
“It was a much better meet than I was anticipating on the women's side,” Naumann said. “We took the fight to Missouri State much better than I thought they would. I was really happy with that.”
The Western Illinois men's squad was paced by Jeff Davis's win in the 500-yard freestyle in a time of 5:01.65, Mike Regan's win in the 100-yard butterfly in a time of 55.91, and Zack Johnson's win in the 400-yard IM in a time of 4:35.55. The Leathernecks men also picked up a relay win in the 200-yard freestyle relay in a time of 1:30.67 with a team comprised of Phil Kurz, Brandon Wilkinson, Jeff Davis and Mike Regan.
“On the men's side, I was really happy to see a lot of our guys really trying to swim the races strategy-wise the way I've been working with them in practice,” Naumann said.
On the diving boards, Western Illinois diver Matt Stiefel took second in both the 1-meter and 3-meter events with scores of 207.54 and 210.38 respectively. For the Leatherneck women's team, Molly Carrignan also took second in the 3-meter with a score of 198.98 while taking third on the 1-meter with a score of 189.83.
“The divers did pretty well. Molly finished in third in 1-meter by a point, which is extremely close in diving. She responded well with a second-place finish in the 3-meter,” said Western Illinois diving coach Melissa Claycomb. “Matt had a strong showing on both boards, breaking 200 both times. It shows a lot of potential for this season.”
Western will be back in the Brophy Hall pool Friday, Oct. 30, when the Leathernecks play host to Saint Louis.
“We've got the cobwebs and the dust shook off of us to get up and really race, but you kind of expect at this point in the season to be a little rusty,” Naumann said. “We're not really racing the teams we are swimming against right now. Basically, we are learning how to swim races correctly and seeing what we need to work on.”
