Feb. 20, 2015
Results | Schedule | Follow @MoStateSwim
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Missouri State women's swimming and diving team has a 97-point cushion following the third day of the 2015 Missouri Valley Conference Championship on Friday, Feb. 20, at the Dr. Edward J. Shea Natatorium.
The Bears currently have 552 points with the host Southern Illinois Salukis in second with 455 points. Illinois State has 391 points for third place, Evansville is in fourth with 317, Northern Iowa has 262.50 for fifth and Arkansas-Little Rock sits in sixth place with 177.50 points.
"The depth is how you win a championship and that's obviously our main goal," head coach Dave Collins said. "I thought we did a great job again tonight with the opportunities that we had. We still need to do a little better job in the morning in the prelims session, but this was a really good day for us in the finals."
MSU had three swimmers make the A-finals in the 400 IM.
Rebecca Amparano led the Bears' contingent by earning the goal medal and finishing in a personal-best time of 4:21.24. Briana Horozewski went back-and-fourth for second- and third-place position before placing fourth in her top time of the season (4:25.91). Heather Snyder also earned seventh for the Bears after swimming her top time of the season in the preliminaries (4:32.88).
"It was definitely challenging," junior Rebecca Amparano said. "I was very nervous, but I feel like the amount of work that we've put in as a whole team and with the support from everybody - that made me really confident going into it.
CeCe Etter also gained extra points for MSU by getting first in the 400 IM B-finals in a time of 4:34.59.
MSU's Emma Wall beat her personal best times on two occasions in the 100 fly, including a 56.18 finish to earn bronze in the A-finals. Ibby Simcox also reached the podium and claimed fifth in the A-finals in a season-best time of 56.86. Hanna Flanagan swam the fastest time of her career in the prelims (57.80) and placed third in the B-finals, Emily Chesser got fifth in the B-final (58.21), while Lauren Williams got first in the C-finals following a personal-mark in the prelims (58.46) and Quincy Howell had the top time of her career in prelims (1:00.16).
Kate Gately and Dora Kiss carried the Bears in the 200 free, with both placing fourth (1:49.78) and sixth (1:50.63) in the A-finals, respectively. Gately's finals time was the best of her career.
MSU also earned points behind Carly Wright's seventh-place finish in the B-final, while Emma Metz set a personal-mark in the prelims (1:55.88).
The Bears finished 1-2 in the 100 breast prelims, but Lauren Pavel wound up as the 100-breast champion by touching the wall in 1:02.61 for the fastest time of her career.
"I knew going into the third 25 (split) that I needed to pick it up because I was definitely not where I wanted to be," sophomore Lauren Pavel said. "In the fourth 25 (split) I had to go as fast as I could just to hopefully clinch the win - which was my goal - and when I touched the wall, it was really great to see my time drop and then know that I was in first place."
Anna Bump broke her personal-best time in the prelims (1:02.85) and earned the bronze medal in the A-final. Alyssa Powers came into the A-finals eighth and used a season-best 1:05.18 to gain the seventh spot on the podium.
Andi Burroughs used consecutive personal bests to finish second in the 100 breast B-final (1:05.38) for the Bears, while Olivia Gean placed first in her prelims heat and first in the C-final.
The 100 back A-finals had three Bears on the podium, with Megan Holthoff leading the way with the top time of her career (55.84) for runner-up honors. Sydney Zupan earned fourth after a personal-best 56.13 in the prelims, while Chesser picked up fifth in the A-finals. Howell, Flanagan and Wall also all earned personal-best times in the prelims.
In 3-meter diving, Nina Privitera broke her best mark with 261.14 points for ninth. Hannah Swyers also had her best six-dive total of her career in the 9-16 finals, scoring 235.25 points for 10th place. The 1-8 3-meter diving finals will take place Saturday and have not been factored into the team scores.
In the final event of Day 3, the Bears set a season-best time in the 400 medley relay to capture 40 points towards the team score. Holthoff, Pavel, Kiss and Bump finished in a winning time of 3:44.13.
"I knew that we needed those points with how our meet's been going," Pavel said. "Our meet overall been going fantastic, but it's just really nice to know that we had that cushion. "We can go into tomorrow knowing that we have those extra points and that we can hopefully come away with the win tomorrow."
The 2015 MVC Championship continues with the final day of action beginning at 10 a.m. Saturday with prelims. Finals races are set to begin at approximately 4 p.m. on the campus of Southern Illinois.
"I think it's definitely important," Amparano said. "(SIU) has improved so much over the last year and I think they're going to race tough tomorrow, but I think we can be tougher and race hard."
"It's a mentality," Collins said. "You've got to be able to get up and race in the morning. We've done a good job racing at night, but we can't wait for the lights to come on at night if we haven't put ourselves in good scoring opportunities in the morning. That will be the goal tomorrow. Championship on the line, you've got to think that is something we can do. Looking forward to tomorrow after a great effort tonight. Hopefully we can win it."
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