Jan. 23, 2015
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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - The Missouri State women's swimming and diving team fell in their final regular-season dual meet to the Arkansas Razorbacks, 191-96, on Friday, Jan. 23, at the Arkansas Natatorium.
After racing less than 24 hours hours prior in the Duel in the Pool, the Bears made the trip to Arkansas to swim against the Southeastern Conference member on its Senior Night.
"The Arkansas women challenged us to step up and compete on the highest level today," Bears senior captain Shannon Myer said. "The meet also gave us an opportunity to work on stroke details to improve our races before the conference meet in February."
"We are constantly working on the idea of racing tired," MSU assistant coach Chelsea Dirks-Ham said. "It was nice to see the women get up and race against a very competitive Arkansas team today after a tough training week in both the pool and weight room."
The Bears battled the Razorbacks tough and had top-three finishes in several events, despite the disadvantage of racing on back-to-back days.
Anna Bump (53.65) and Kate Gately (53.70) placed second and third in the 100 free for the best MSU tandem finish Friday. Dora Kiss earned runner-up in the 200 fly in a time of 2:05.76 and Lauren Pavel took third in the 100 breast in a time of 1:07.67.
Sydney Zupan had two top-five finishes for the Bears, taking runner-up in the 100 back (1:59.16) and fourth in the 200 back (2:03.37).
"This meet was our last opportunity to fine tune our race strategies and practice competing before conference," MSU freshman Sydney Zupan said. "I thought we did a great job racing tired and I'm really excited for February."
The Bears had two divers lead the squad, with Hannah Swyers finishing with an MSU-best 217.88 points in the 3-meter and Nina Privitera earning 220.43 points in the 1-meter. CeCe also took fourth for MSU in the 200 back (2:09.23) and Emma Metz placed fifth in the 200 free (1:59.16). The top MSU 400 free relay squad of Zupan, Megan Holthoff, Bump and Shannon Myer finished the final event of the dual in a time of 3.41.31.
"It was exciting to swim in my home pool and although we were tired, we all gave a great effort," MSU junior swimmer Olivia Gean said. "We were glad to have one last opportunity to race before conference."
The Missouri State women's swimming and diving team will now gear its focus towards the Missouri Valley Conference Swimming and Diving Championships. The conference meet is set to begin on Wednesday, Feb. 18, at the Dr. Edward J. Shea Natatorium on the campus of Southern Illinois University.
"This meet was the final opportunity for our women to fine tune race specific details in a meet setting before the conference championship," Dirks-Ham said. "As a group, we have targeted a couple areas to focus on during the final weeks of training heading into the conference meet."
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