Feb. 18, 2015
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CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Missouri State women's swimming and diving team won the 200 medley relay and earned a school-record time in the 800 free relay to jump out to a two-point lead in the 2015 Missouri Valley Conference Swimming and Diving Championship at Dr. Edward J. Shea Natatorium on Wednesday, Feb. 18.
In the opening 200 medley relay, the Bears battled back-and forth in the first heat against relay teams from Evansville and Southern Illinois. The race was neck-and-neck until the final turn when MSU's anchor leg, Kate Gately, helped push the Bears to a victory with a season-best time of 1:42.82.
"That relay is a sprint relay and anything can happen in a 200 relay and I was very pleased," head coach Dave Collins said. "We needed that to get started. We're not the top seed in any of the relays this weekend so when we can sneak a win, we'll take it."
The MSU `A' relay squad of Megan Holthoff, Anna Bump, Ibby Simcox and Gately were 0.79 seconds behind the school-record time set at the 2013 MVC Championship by Holthoff, Renata Sander, Roni Balzam and Gately.
The Bears' `B' and `C' relay times also had quality efforts, finishing fifth and sixth among all relay teams, respectively. The `B' team consisted of Quincy Howell, Lauren Pavel, Hanna Flanagan and Shannon Myer. MSU's `C' squad consisted of CeCe Etter, Alyssa Powers, Rebecca Amparano and Emily Chesser.
The 800 free relay also came down to the wire with several teams in contention.
Dora Kiss, Sydney Zupan, Kate Gately and Ibby Simcox led MSU in the 800 free relay, beating the previous school record by more than nine seconds in a time of 7:20.77. The previous Bears record was set at the 2012 MVC Championship by Anna Ahlin, Hannah Molden, Dawn Richerson and Dimitra Drakopoulou.
The `A' relay team finished runner up to the host Southern Illinois Salukis, barely touching in behind SIU by two seconds.
"I think we saw what the benefit of moving the 800 free relay to the first day has," Collins said. "For us, that was a giant drop on the school record. I was very proud, we had three splits under (1:50), that was a great way to start. Just a little short at the end, but it was phenomenal what (Southern Illinois) did."
Missouri State leads the team standings with 74 points, followed by SIU in second with 72. Evansville and Illinois State are tied for third with 62 points, Northern Iowa is fifth with 56 points and Arkansas Little-Rock has 54 points and is in sixth.
The 2015 MVC Swimming and Diving Championship continues with preliminary rounds beginning at 11 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 19 at the Dr. Edward J. Shea Natatorium. Finals will begin at approximately 6 p.m.
"You've got to race tough in the morning," Collins said. "The prelims are very important. You can't score big points if you're not scoring them in the morning. We just have to get up and take the momentum off the relays today and go."
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