WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Missouri State swimming and diving wrapped up the three-day Purdue Invitational here Friday evening. 
 
The Bears were going head-to-head with three Power-Five programs, with Louisville, Northwestern and Purdue all racing against MSU. On the women's side, MoState finished in fifth out of nine clubs, recording 275 points, while the men's team came in sixth out of seven, registering 307.5 points. The women placed ahead of Missouri Valley Conference teams Illinois State and Southern Illinois, while the men topped Mid-American Conference foe SIU.  

"After a bit of a rocky first session, I felt we started putting the pieces together each session after that," head coach Dave Collins said. "We have plenty of areas for improvement, top to bottom, but I am encouraged by the growth we saw from the team over the three-day meet. We will get right back to work in the pool and continue looking for improvements moving into the second half of the season."
 
On the men's side, the following four Bears recorded career-best times in events. Alex Boutin earned a time of 1:47.65 in the 200-yard backstroke final, finishing 10^th. Brayden Goeldner recorded a mark of 2:01.66 in the 200-yard breaststroke finals, good for an 18^th-place finish. Lucas Chadwell posted a time of 45.11 in the 100-yard freestyle to finish in 27^th place, and Reese Hodgins earned a mark of 45.08 in the 100 free as the lead-off swimmer in the 400-yard freestyle relay, an event in which the Bears' squad of Hodgins, Chadwell, Robbie Hill and Bruno Guerra finished eight with a time of 2:58.95.   

In the 200-yard butterfly finals, MSU placed three men inside the top 15 with Pawel Krawczyk taking sixth (1:46.72), AJ Huskey grabbing ninth (1:47.45) and Tyler Lewis coming in 13^th (1:50.09). In the 1650-yard freestyle, Jonathan Hill led the way for the Bears, snagging a 10^th place finish (15:49.32), while Aiden Dunn (15:50.57) and Brunno Suzuki (16:05.16) finished not too far behind him in 11^th and 13^th, respectively. 

"The team had some really bright spots," Hill said. "A lot of underclassmen are figuring things out and looking great, and that makes the team excited for the rest of the season."  

Cabrini Johnson headlined the women's team for MoState. In the 200-yard breaststroke finals, Johnson claimed a fifth-place finish with a time of 2:14.38, and Yuliya Zubina finished 18^th with a mark of 2:19.38.  

Six Bears swam in the 1650-yard freestyle on the women's side. Vera Margula secured the highest place, finishing ninth (17:05.57), while Lily Despain (17:09.60), Grace Beahan (17:19.64), Ainsley Jenkins (17:23.97), Lauren Chaney (17:29.92) and Samantha Hietpas (17:39.57) recorded 10^th, 13^th, 15^th, 17^th and 21^st place finishes, respectively.  

"I felt really positive going into the mile, especially knowing I was doing it alongside my teammates," Beahan said. "There was great competition in my heat, and I was able to see my team on the side of the pool cheering for me the entire time, which gave me that extra push to finish strong. I'm really happy with how it went."  

"As a team, we took this meet as an opportunity to evaluate where we are at and what we have to work on for the last half of the season for conference action," she added. "We raced tough against great competition, and it gets me super excited to see what we can accomplish come championship time."  

In the 400-yard freestyle relay, the squad of Anna Lucas, Jordan Wenner, Ulyana Zubina and Samantha Roemer snagged sixth with a time of 3:23.96.  

The Bears are back in action Saturday, Dec. 3 when they travel to Columbia, Mo. for a dual against in-state rival Missouri at 10 a.m.  

#BearsUnite