SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – After a slow start, the Missouri State men's and women's swimming and diving team made out with several top finishes in the men's victory and the women's loss to Drury at Hammons Student Center Saturday evening.

The Missouri State men dominated the Panthers 143-73 while the women fell by a score of 131-100. The Missouri State men made out with seven individual victories and one relay victory, highlighted by several strong performances from the Bears' freshman class.

The women's squad was unable to conjure a first-place finish during the meet, but tallied six second-place finishes and one relay victory. The women's 400-yard medley relay opened up the 'Duel in the Pool' grabbing second with a time of 3:53.92.

The men's 400yd medley A relay team achieved the same result shortly after, recording a time of 3:21.92 while the B relay grabbed third in 3:26.55.

"I feel like we came out flat and that was disappointing," head coach Dave Collins said. "To lose both the medley relays right off the bat is very uncharacteristic of what we want to do at the beginning of the meet. We try and take a lot of pride in having high energy and trying to set the tone early and we just didn't do that."

After dropping the opening relay, the Missouri State men kicked it in gear when Minki Kang posted a time of 9:31.49 in the 1000yd freestyle to steal first-place away from teammate Kevin Douglas, who finished in 9:50.76.

Drury would go on to finish first in the men's 200yd freestyle, but the Bears finished 2-3-4-5 in the event. Kacper Cwiek was the leader for the Bears, finishing in 1:41.27 followed by Bolman, Weissman and Campbell.

The Bears went on to win six more individual events with Samuel Senn (50yd free), Artur Osvath (200yd IM, 200yd butterfly), Bolman (100yd free), Conner Ripp (200yd backstroke) and Christopher Heye (200yd breast) bringing in big points for the men's crew.

Osvath, who broke two pool records at the University of Kansas last weekend, shattered the Missouri State pool record in the 200yd fly by nearly two seconds, recording a time of 1:47.85 in the event. Ripp, a freshman, won the first race of his collegiate career thanks to his 1:53.06 performance in the 200yd back.

Sydney Zupan, Loretta Stelnicki, Vikte Labanauskaite and Briana Horozewski were the top contenders for the women, bringing in several second and third-place finishes. Following the slow start, Zupan grabbed second in the 200yd free (1:53.81) to get things going for the women.

Stelnicki, who had two runner-up outings, took second in the 50yd free (22.77) and 100yd free (52.48). In another top performance for the Bears, Horozewski set a new personal record in the 200yd breast thanks to her 2:24.59 performance that earned her third.

Labanauskaite showed strong outings in both the 1000yd free (10:39.80) and 200yd breast (2:22.88) while Haley Allen was the top finisher for the Bears in the 200yd fly in her 2:07.13 outing.

All three Missouri State divers had successful days on the board, beginning with senior Alexis Skiniotes who set a new personal record in the 3-meter. Skiniotes tallied 265.80 points in the event, outscoring her previous record by over 20 points. She also took first in the 1-meter with a total of 237.45 points. Payton Smith, a freshman, finished second in both the 1-meter (197.40) and 3-meter (258.90), and also set a personal-best in the 3-meter.

Freshman McClay Hartsfield earned the first two victories of his career, placing first in both the 1-meter (255.90) and the 3-meter (264.97). Hartsfield's showing in the 3-meter set a new personal record for the newcomer.

Despite a slow start to the evening, both teams rose to the occasion in the final event, the 400 free relay, when the Missouri State women's A relay team out-touched Drury by nearly two whole seconds to claim first in the event. The Missouri State men's A relay team capped off the day with a first-place finish while the B relay team earned second, out-touching Drury by just over 1.50 seconds.

Next Up For The Bears
The Missouri State men's and women's swimming and diving team travels to Iowa City, Iowa, where they will take on the University of Iowa and Purdue Saturday, Oct. 29 at 2 p.m. For more information, visit www.missouristatebears.com or Twitter (MoStateSwim).