The Missouri State women’s swimming and diving team competed in a pentathlon-style dual against Rice and was defeated by the two-time defending Conference USA-champion Owls, 110-45, at the Rice Aquatics Center Natatorium on Saturday, Jan. 3.
“Today we had the opportunity to get up and race in a unique format of events,” head coach Dave Collins said. “Everyone got in five races in a very short time following some very difficult workouts.”
The score of the dual was established by adding up every swimmers’ cumulative time in all five events and scored out of 16 places.
In the first event for the Bears’ swimmers since the conclusion of the Louisville Invitational over a month ago, sophomore CeCe Etter highlighted the MSU performances Saturday.
Etter finished first among Bears swimmers in two events, placing a team-best third on the day in the 100 back (59.90) and also coming in sixth in the 200 IM (2:14.20). She also placed 11th in the 100 fly, 14th in the 100 free and 15th in the 100 breast.
The top event as a team came in the 100 breast for MSU.
Sophomore Lauren Pavel finished fifth to lead the Bears in the event in a time of 1:08.58. Senior Alyssa Powers followed her in sixth (1:09.83), junior Andi Burroughs came in eighth (1:10.48) and sophomore Briana Horozewski rounded out the top 10 of the 100 breast with a time of 1:10.65.
Junior Ibby Simcox, sophomore Anna Bump and freshman Sydney Zupan each had three top-15 finishes in three events for MSU. Bump had the fastest time for the Bears in the 100 free (54.11) behind a fifth-place finish, while Zupan earned fourth in the 100 back (1:00.42).
“I have been very pleased with the work ethic so far on our training trip and look forward to keeping the momentum going,” Collins said.
The Missouri State women’s swimming and diving team’s next scheduled event is a home dual against Truman State on Saturday, Jan. 17, at Hammons Student Center. The Bears’ men’s swimming and diving team is scheduled to compete in a double dual with Tennessee and Texas A&M in College Station, Texas, at 2 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 8, at the Student Recreation Center Natatorium.
