ST. LOUIS – Less than a day after finishing competition in Charleston, Ill., Fighting Leatherneck swimming was back in the water facing off against Saint Louis and Maryville on Saturday afternoon (Jan. 25).  Both the Leatherneck men and women fell to Saint Louis by scores of 141-69 and 146-61, respectively, while the Western women defeated Maryville 161-34.

“We had another solid meet today. We were a little tired from last night and all of the traveling, but I thought we did a good job with swimming our races,” said head coach Greg Naumann. “Our races yesterday and today are setting us up to figure out where everyone will race at conference in February. I anticipate the team really stepping up for next week's final home meet, and then at Iowa the following week.”

The Leathernecks recorded 24 season-highs individually during competition. Western also saw 12 second-place finishes between individual and relay action.

Matt Abercrombie recorded a pair of second-place finishes in the 1000-free (10:00.43) and 200-back (2:00.31). His time in the 1000-free is a new season-high.

Chris Neaveill and JD Furr finished the 200-IM in second and third place with times of 2:06.46 and 2:06.79, respectively. Furr recorded a second-place finish in the 200-breaststroke with a time of 2:17.33.

Dylon Rykosky notched a second-place finish in the 200-fly (2:00.11), while Tyler Neaveill finished the 100-free in second-place after touching the wall in 50.06 seconds.

On the ladies side, Paige Wolfe was second in the 200-IM (2:25.84), while Kelsey Kirchhoefer recorded a runner-up finish in the 200-fly with a time of 2:18.65.

Abby Hansen finished the 200-backstroke in second with a time of 2:21.31, while Jayna Jobes' time of 5:46.94 in the 500-free was good for second.

In relay action, the women's 400-free team of Haley Brasile, Daniella Bresler, Lizzie Hollopeter and Hansen finished in second-place with a time of 3:55.11. The men's 400-free team (Chris and Tyler Neaveill, Austin Payne and Rykosky) finished in second-place with a time of 3:15.00.

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CHICAGO – Leatherneck diving competed inside the Flames Natatorium on Saturday afternoon. Doug Ogilvie highlighted action for Western, finishing the 3-meter dive in second after posting a season-best score of 295.80. Ogilvie finished the 1-meter dive in third-place with a score of 283.00.

Julia Rassmussen finished the 1-meter dive with a score of 212.15, good for eighth-place during competition. Viktor Rusenas finished the 3-meter dive in eighth-place with a score of 226.50.

Western swimming & diving returns home next Saturday (Feb. 1) for senior day at Brophy Pool. Competition versus Monmouth College and Butler is slated to begin at 1 p.m.