OXFORD, Ohio - Missouri State men's swimming & diving earned two silver and two bronze medals on the penultimate day of the 2025 Missouri Valley Conference Men's Swimming & Diving Championships on Friday at Corwin M. Nixon Aquatic Center. The Bears maintained their third-place position they held entering the day behind Miami (Ohio) and Southern Illinois.

The Bears had two swimmers on the podium of the 200-yard freestyle. Following his gold-medal performance in the 500-yard freestyle on Thursday, Reese Hodgins earned his third medal of the meet by coming in second with a time of 1:36.70. Right behind him, Jack Grandy secured the bronze with a time of 1:37.08 for his first career individual conference medal. 

Miami (Ohio) swimmer Bryce Menchhofer took Hodgins' conference record (1:36.67) away with a gold-medal time of 1:36.53. The Bears had three swimmers make the A Final, as George Holesinger followed suit with a 1:38.75 time to finish seventh.

The third day of competition was full of close finishes for the Bears. Luigi Maciel da Silva led for most of the 100-yard breaststroke before falling to Southern Illinois' Tiago Faleiros by half a tenth of a second. Faleiros (53.34) also snagged the Valley record away from Maciel da Silva, who swam a 53.66 at the House of Champions Invitational in November.

Chris Bedsole matched his seventh-place finish in the 100-yard butterfly (48.25) from last year's Mid-American Conference Championships. Teammate Simeon Sabev (48.37) finished right behind him in eighth. 

Freshman Gonzalo Ruiz continued his strong rookie campaign with a fifth-place finish in the 100-yard backstroke, leading a group of five Bears that finished in the top 16. Ruiz set a personal best time of 48.06 in the 100 back. Fellow freshman Willem Huggins of Southern Illinois finished second in the event (46.81).

The Bears earned their fourth relay medal in as many events, sneaking into third place in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Matvei Chesakov, Lucas Chadwell, Bedsole and Sabev combined for the team's season-best time of 1:20.47, just behind Ball State's 1:20.39 and ahead of UIC's 1:20.74. Miami (Ohio) won the event with a time of 1:18.59.

In diving, Cole Hysong competed in the 3-meter diving prelims, finishing sixth out of the eight divers in the consolation round with a score of 263.35. He improved on his morning prelim score of 251.60. Storm Opdahl (287.80) and Logan Scheldfaut (275.35) qualified for the 3-meter diving finals set for tomorrow.

The final day of the 2025 MVC Men's Swimming & Diving Championships starts with the prelim races for the final events tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. CT. The finals for each event will start at 5:00 p.m. CT. The championships can be viewed on Chatterbox Sports.

Standings After Day 3
1.    Miami (Ohio) - 569
2.    Southern Illinois - 452
3.    Missouri State - 401
4.    UIC - 325.5
5.    Ball State - 237.5
6.    Valparaiso - 113
7.    Evansville - 79

Day 4, Saturday, Feb. 22
Prelims: 9:30 a.m. CT
Finals: 5:00 p.m. CT
- 1,650-yard Freestyle
- 200-yard Backstroke
- 100-yard Freestyle
- 200-yard Breaststroke
- 200-yard Butterfly
- 3-meter Diving (Finals)
- 400-yard Freestyle Relay