University of Missouri swimming and diving definitively defeated the McKendree Bearcats and Vanderbilt Commodores in the Tigers’ home opener on Nov. 1. The men’s and women’s teams won 29 of the 32 events combined.
The men competed against McKendree, besting them 213.5-85.5. The women won against both teams, defeating Vanderbilt 236-57 and McKendree 244-40.
“The big win was executing our process very well,” head coach Andrew Grevers said.
Missouri now boasts a 1-1 men’s record and a 1-1 women’s record on the season following both teams loss to Purdue Oct.18.
“We were exposed, Purdue was good,” Grevers said. “…That’s good to get punched in the face like that so to speak and see how resilient our team was, and see that they didn’t fold or crumble, but got hungry for more.”
That hunger was shown in sophomore Matthew Judkins.
“We had a bit of a chip on our shoulder after Purdue,” Judkins said. “And we kind of just wanted to come in here (and) swim faster than that, and we did.”
Missouri placed in the top two times for all four relays and took all but three of the individual events.
“We’re talking personal bests, which at this level in the season is not common,” Grevers said. “I’m pretty confident we’re well into the double digits for today, so that’s a massive day.”
Luke Nebrich was one of those swimmers, as the sophomore placed first in all four of his events. In the 50 yard freestyle, Nebrich finished with a 19.03 time, two seconds faster than the next McKendree swimmer and surpassed the NCAA qualifying time for last year.
Junior Quinlan Gould finished first in three events, including his career-best in the 100 yard backstroke. The Arizona State transfer boasted a 46.47 second time, 3.6 seconds faster than second place. The time replaced his old record of 47.31 seconds set in January.
On the women’s side, freshman Libby Bakker, junior Zara Zallen and senior Karolina Bank all had at least three wins.
Zallen had a perfect day, placing first in the 200 yard medley relay, 200 yard freestyle, 100 yard freestyle and the 400 yard freestyle relay.
Bank’s 100 yard breaststroke time was 1:00.10, nearly three seconds ahead of the next non-Missouri finisher and over two seconds faster than teammate Paige Striley’s second place finish.
Bakker’s three victories earned three personal bests in her budding career.
“Hopefully, this is just the tip of the iceberg,” Grevers said.
Mizzou’s diving team will return Nov. 13-15 at the Georgia Tech Invitational. The swimming and diving team’s next event will be the Mizzou Invite at the Mizzou Aquatic Center Nov. 20-22.
