Missouri swimming and diving looks forward to new opportunities with an exciting upcoming season.
After finishing No. 16 in the 2022 National Collegiate Athletic Association swimming and diving championship last season on the men’s side and No. 45 on the women’s side. What can we expect from this year’s Missouri Swim and Dive team?
A major change from last year is the new coaching staff on the men’s side. Joining head coach Andrew Grevers will be new associate head coach Bex Freebairn, assistant diving coach Drew Sheldon and assistant coach Madeline Banic.
Freebairn is coming off of back-to-back Mid-American Conference Championships at the University of Akron. She’s looking to build upon her previous success.
“As a staff, we’re on the same page with what we want to achieve and how we want to go about it,” Freebairn said. “We want to continue getting better, bigger, faster, stronger and compete at the highest level, which is the NCAA [championships] or on an international level.”
An initial concern for the Tigers was the loss of leadership in Jack Dahlgren and Meredith Rees, who were the top scorers on their respective teams last year. Both the men’s and women’s sides graduated a large number of swimmers, with the men’s side graduating nine and the women’s graduating eight.
Coach Grevers expressed excitement for the new leadership set to step in.
“It was really interesting to see who was going to step up and fill that role; it’s been great seeing these kids who didn’t necessarily want to be leaders or didn’t feel they’re prepared to be leaders, and all of a sudden they’re just doing it,” Grevers said. “They’re feeling empowered to be there. Some are leading by example, and some are lead vocal leaders. But at the end of the day, the leadership has been a huge change.”
Coach Grevers also expressed how happy he was with the recruiting process this year.
“We’re pretty well balanced right now,” Grevers said. “Men’s side, we’re lacking pure sprinters. We got some great sprinting, like our 200 freestyle relay that had no business scoring in NCAAs last year, but we did.”
Grevers expressed many positives for the roster only stating a little concern for distance swimmers and sprinting on the men’s side.
“We’re really good at butterfly,” Grevers said. “We have a lot of butterflies on the women’s side. Our sprinting is pretty darn good. I think 1500 freestyle is going to be a strength.”
Here’s a short preview of each event swim and dive will compete in this season:
SMU Classic
The SMU Classic is the first official meet in the season for the Tigers. It will be held in Dallas Texas from Oct. 6-7. The Tigers will go up against the heavy competition from Louisville, Texas A&M, Southern Methodist University, Miami, Michigan, Southern California and Texas. In the 2022 SMU Classic, the men’s team finished third with 778.3 points, the Texas A&M Aggies finished second with 789.4 points and the Texas Longhorns finished first with 815 points. The women’s side finished fourth with 768.7 points, falling behind Louisville, Michigan and USC.
Coach Grevers expressed his expectations for the event.
“I would be thrilled just to be in the top four of six,” Grevers said. “So that kind of shows we’re not quite that top two, top half caliber for a big meet like that. I still think that we are building momentum and are trying to take some steps forward.”
At Alabama
This will be the first time The Tigers have faced off in a solo meet against Alabama since Oct.14, 2016. In the NCAA Championship last year, the Crimson Tide finished behind Missouri. This meet against Alabama was one of the few coach Grevers mentioned when asked about meets he was looking forward to. The 2023 meet will be held in Tuscaloosa, Alabama on Oct. 20.
“I think as far as teams that are really well matched for us this year, the Alabama meet in three and a half weeks, or the Purdue meet at the end of January are going to be some really well-balanced meets,” Grevers said.
The Tigers must do well in the individual events, as the Crimson Tide have a strong relay core that bested the Tigers in the Southern Eastern Conference championship, this meet gives this new roster a chance to establish themselves against a high-caliber team in the SEC.
Tri-meet with Indiana and Auburn
This will be one of the toughest meets the Tigers will have all season, as the tri-meet in late October will see Missouri take on two powerhouses that performed incredibly well in the NCAA Championship last season: Auburn and Indiana. The Auburn Tiger’s men’s team scored No. 2in the SEC Championship and No. 10 in the NCAA champs, and their women’s team finished No. 7 in the SEC Championship and No. 30 in the NCAA. Auburn beat Missouri in the two teams’ last meeting in January 2015.
While Indiana isn’t a conference rival, they’re similar to Auburn in skill. Indiana placed fourth and seventh in the NCAA Championship and beat Missouri in their last two meets in 2018 and 2022. The tri-meet will be held at home on Oct. 25.
At Lindenwood
Missouri hasn’t faced Lindenwood solo in the past five years. The Tigers have, however, beaten Lindenwood in the past two Show Me Showdowns that Missouri has hosted. After facing three very competitive teams to start, this should be a pick-me-up meet heading into the Mizzou Invite. It will be held in St. Charles, Mo. on Nov. 3.
Mizzou Invite
In this year’s Mizzou Invite, the Tigers will be going up against Brigham Young, Iowa State, the University of Kansas’ swim club, McKendree University, Missouri S&T, San Jose State and University of Northern Colorado. Missouri has won the past four Mizzou Invites.
This year, Missouri’s biggest competitor is going to be BYU. BYU finished No. 49 in the NCAA Championship so it will be an even matchup considering a new roster is in place for Missouri. The invite will be held from Nov. 15- 17.
USA Diving Winter Nationals
Information for the USA Diving Winter Nationals has not been released; more information will be released as it is provided. The event will be hosted in Knoxville, Tennessee from Nov. 27 to Dec. 6.
At Missouri State
The Tigers have played Missouri State every year since 2011 and haven’t fallen to the Bears in that timespan. Each time the Tigers beat Missouri State it has been because of a high point differential or it has fallen down to gold medals. If Missouri can keep the gold medal advantage then this is another meet to likely add to their winning streak against the Bears. The meet will be hosted in Springfield, Missouri on Dec. 2.
Auburn Diving Invite
The Auburn Diving Invite is a three-day long diving meet that is always filled with competitive teams. While participants for this tournament haven’t been released yet, this should be another great opportunity for Missouri to establish itself as a legitimate SEC title contender. The meet will be held from Dec. 17-20.
At Louisville
This is the second time Missouri will be facing Louisville this season. The Tigers will hope to snap their four-meet losing streak against the Cardinals, which dates back to 2016. Louisville had a crushing performance in the NCAA Championship last year finishing 13th and 4th. Louisville has an incredibly strong women’s team that could challenge a new Missouri roster. The meet will be held in Louisville, Kansas on Jan. 5.
At Purdue
The Tigers and Purdue Boilermakers are set to face off for the third year in a row. The Tigers have won the past two meets against the Boilermakers and hope to make it a three-game winning streak against an overall well-performing team that consistently makes the NCAA Championship and does well in it. The meet will be held in West Lafayette, Indiana on Jan. 13.
Tiger Qualifier
Missouri will conclude its regular season with the Tiger Qualifier in early February. Last year, Missouri faced off against Nebraska and the University of Saint Louis, but the Tigers finished in second place, with the Cornhuskers finishing first.
SEC Championship
The SEC Championship is a highly competitive meet against some of the best swimming and diving teams in college. Last year, Florida dominated the championships, winning both on the women’s and men’s side, while the Tigers fell to sixth and eleventh respectively.
This is the best chance the Tigers have to establish their new roster in a highly competitive conference. The Championships will be held at Auburn this year from Feb. 20-24.
NCAA Championships
The NCAA Championships are where Missouri will be looking to enact revenge. After two vastly different performances from the men’s and women’s sides, the men finished No. 16 while the women finished No. 45. This year the Tigers will be looking for a bounce-back performance and will have to perform exceptionally well in order to improve from last year. It will be held in Indianapolis from March 27-30.
With a new coaching staff, roster, and an exciting schedule filled with competitive meets, this season is looking to be an exciting and refreshing one.
Edited by Quentin Corpuel | qcorpuel@themaneater.com
Copy Edited by Logan Gee and Sterling Sewell | ssewell@themaneater.com
Edited by Sophie Rentschler | srentscher@themaneater.com