After nearly a month without meets, Missouri swim and dive splashed back into an eventful and exciting new year with three meets in January, the last month for the Tigers to prepare for championships.
The first meet of the new year gave Missouri divers a chance to showcase their skills against several opponents at the Tennessee Diving Invite. The meet lasted from Jan. 3-6, and the Tigers competed against many SEC teams.
At the invite, senior Sarah Rousseau was the frontrunner in the women’s events, placing first in the platform final with a score of 272.25, fifth in the one-meter final and seventh in the three-meter final.
In the men’s events, junior Carlo Lopez placed fourth in the platform final, sixth in the three-meter final and eighth in the one-meter final.
While the Tigers were expected to host Louisville for a meet on Jan. 8 for senior day, the meet was canceled due to COVID-19 issues within both programs.
Nonetheless, the Tigers were back in action shortly thereafter, dominating the McKendree Bearcats in the first swim and dive meet of the new year, winning 173.5-113.5 in the men’s events and 184-67 in the women’s events.
In the women’s 200-yard freestyle event, Missouri was especially dominant, as senior Molly Gowans led the pack with a time of 1:48.56. Additionally, the dive team swept all of their respective events.
Sophomore Kayla Wilson came in first place in the women’s one-meter dive with a score of 249.30, and sophomore Jude Dierker won the men’s one-meter dive with a score of 270.15. Wilson and Dierker prolonged their success and won in the women and men’s three-meter dive events.
To close out the regular season, the Tigers traveled to Columbia, South Carolina, to face South Carolina. On both the men’s and women’s teams, the meet was a tight competition. Although the women’s team narrowly edged out the Gamecocks, winning 152-148, the men’s team was defeated 150-144. Despite the defeat on the men’s side, the Missouri men and women set seven pool records combined in an action-packed meet.
The men’s team struggled to pull out a win in the first three events, but found more momentum in the fourth event, with senior Jack Dahlgren winning first place and a pool record of 46.48 in the 100-yard backstroke. Dahlgren went on to set another pool record of 1:42.64 in the 200-yard backstroke.
The men’s team broke an additional record, belonging to junior Ben Patton, who recorded a time of 52.97 in the 100-yard breaststroke. The only win for the Missouri dive team came from Lopez, who scored 338.18 in the men’s three-meter dive. While several notable victories marked the Missouri men’s efforts, they ultimately fell short against South Carolina.
However, the women managed to scrape by with a win and set four pool records. Fifth year Sarah Thompson set two individual records, swimming times of 52.45 seconds and 52.33 seconds in the 100-yard backstroke and the 100-yard fly respectively.
The women’s relay teams also dominated the pool, setting pool records in the 200-yard medley relay and the 400-yard freestyle relay. The medley relay team of junior Meredith Rees, senior Kayla Jones, Thompson and senior Megan Keil recorded a time of 1:38.07. The freestyle relay team of Thompson, Keil, junior Amy Feddersen and sophomore Sierra Smith recorded a time of 3:16.33.
While January was a busy month for the Tigers, it marked the beginning of an even more intense championship season as Missouri heads into the SEC and NCAA championships in coming weeks.
Edited by Riley Gearhart | rgearhart@themaneater.com
