SPRINGFIELD - The Missouri State swimming & diving team competed against the visiting Missouri Tigers in a fast-paced meet for the ages here on Saturday. 

The Bears earned wins in nine of the 26 events against its second SEC opponent this season. Missouri came out on top on the score sheet with the Tiger men winning 153-90 and the Mizzou women winning 147-96, but the Bears came away with new best times that lead the MVC.

"We just had a great day today," head coach Dave Collins said. "I talked to the athletes yesterday. A lot of work has gone into making today a special and fun festival of swimming. We talked about the main goal today was to have fun. I wanted them to come away from today with this being the most fun they've had at a college meet, and I think we did that."

The meet featured activities for fans of all ages to partake in. That paired with an in-state opponent proved to be the right ingredients to set an attendance record at Hammons Student Center Pool with 372 people coming to watch.

Recent MVC Swimmer of the Week Lily DeSpain opened the individual swim events by winning the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:49.43, setting the new bar in the conference.

"Going back to the top of the conference leaderboard is a really great feeling knowing that we are about to go into conference competition and I just want to score as many points as possible for our team," DeSpain said.

The women's strong start continued to the 100-yard backstroke where two-time MVC Freshman of the Week Caitlyn Friebe followed up her last performance against Arkansas with a win (54.73). Friebe also won the 50-yard backstroke with a time of 25.62, beating out four Missouri Tigers.

The Springfield native and Willard High School alum has three career victories in her young career. All three have been in backstroke events and all three have come against SEC opponents.

"Today was so much fun," Friebe said. "It was very competitive with Mizzou. The atmosphere was crazy. I had so many club teammates and kids that I coach watching. The support was so awesome and I am so lucky to be on a great team with great coaches."

Senior Jordan Wenner also followed up her MVC-best time in the 100-yard freestyle at the Purdue Invitational with another win in the event against Mizzou (50.60). Wenner and fellow senior Samantha Roemer lead Missouri State with four individual wins on the season as Roemer also set an MVC season-best time in the 100-yard IM with a winning time of 57.04.

The Missouri State men made similar gains against a nationally-ranked Tigers squad with more familiar faces coming out on top as well as swimmers earning their first wins this season. 

Senior Robert Hill took home his team-leading sixth individual win in the 100-yard backstroke (48.37). Of his six wins, three of them have come in the 100 back with victories against Lindenwood, Southern Illinois and Missouri.

Hill was also the highest Missouri State finisher in the 50-yard backstroke and the 100-yard IM.

Sophomore Lucas Chadwell continued his mid-season momentum after setting personal bests in the 100 and 200-yard freestyle at Purdue two weeks ago. Another Springfield native, the Glendale High School alum took his first individual win of the season in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 20.48.

Sophomore Luigi Maciel da Silva won the 50-yard breaststroke in a photo finish with a time of 24.64 to beat out Mizzou junior Tyler Spillane by one-hundredth of a second (24.65).

"I really enjoyed every moment in the pool," da Silva said. "I really like how the team cheers for everybody."

Senior Dylan Moffatt continued his regular occurrence in the winner's circle with a dominating victory in the 500-yard freestyle (4:28.92) by over seven seconds. 

Missouri State swimming & diving concludes the 2023 portion of its schedule and will take nearly two months off from competition before its senior day against the crosstown Drury Panthers on January 19, 2024 as part of a home-and-home series on back-to-back days. The first day against Drury will mark the final home meet for the Bears this season.