COLUMBIA, Mo. - Missouri State women's swimming & diving split its tri-dual meet against Missouri and McKendree to open the 2025 portion of the season. The women's team defeated McKendree, 204-87, while dropping its contest with Mizzou, 232-67. The men's team dropped both its head-to-head battles with a loss to last year's Division II fourth-place finishing Bearcats, 191-102, and last year's Division I 27th-place Tigers, 228-66.

The women's team opened the day with a podium performance in the 200-yard medley relay. Caitlyn Friebe, Cabrini Johnson, Samantha Roemer and Lana Janson finished third in the event with a time of 1:40.57.

Janson was a main highlight for the Bears, picking up a win in the 200-yard freestyle (1:48.59). Her time was just one-tenth of a second off her season best she set on the first day of the meet against Omaha on Nov. 1. The win marked Janson's fifth individual victory of the season, all of which have come in freestyle events.

Johnson picked up Missouri State's other win of the meet. She touched the wall first in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:13.10. The defending Missouri Valley Conference silver medalist in the event beat out Missouri's Karolina Bank by less than a tenth of a second (2:13.10). Johnson also put up the team's season-best time in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:01.31), surpassing her previous team best of 1:01.60 she set in Missouri State's last meet at the 2024 House of Champions Invitational. 

A handful of Bears earned personal best times to open the 2025 portion of the season. Sarah Culberson led the way for the Bears with a fourth-place finish in the 200-yard butterfly with her best MSU time of 2:02.82, good for the sixth-fastest top individual Valley time. Freshman Lillie Freulon also secured a personal best time in the 100-yard butterfly (54.49) to place her eighth in the conference.

The women closed the day with another bronze showing in the 400-yard medley relay. Cameryn Johnson, Roemer, Freulon and Makenzie Kurre combined for a time of 3:24.44.

In diving, Maggie Arceneaux led the Bears in the 1-meter dive with a score of 224.40. Courtney Stanbury topped the charts for the Bears in the 3-meter dive (323.65). Each finished sixth in the respective dives.

The men's team began the day by finishing fourth in the 200 medley relay (1:28.83) with Gonzalo Ruiz, Luigi Maciel da Silva, Simeon Sabev and Matvei Chesakov. Ruiz, who won the 150-yard backstroke in yesterday's exhibition, led the Bears on Saturday in the 100-yard backstroke (49.45), 200-yard backstroke (1:47.69) and 200-yard individual medley (1:55.03). 

Brunno Suzuki-Tomiyama, last season's Missouri Valley Conference 500-yard freestyle champion, finished third in the event with a time of 4:32.25. 

Logan Schelfaut led the Bears in both diving events. He finished fourth in the 1-meter dive (279.10) and fifth in the 3-meter dive (286.73).

Missouri State swimming & diving will compete in Springfield for the last time this season when it hosts conference opponent UIC for a two-day meet starting Friday at 3:00 p.m. Missouri State's Senior Day meet will be the following day starting at 10:00 a.m.