In its third consecutive dual meet away from home, Missouri swim and dive bounced back after a close conference loss to Texas A&M to defeat the much-improved Missouri State Bears for the second time this season.
The No. 15 Mizzou men were led to a 138-98 dual win by two individual wins by sophomore Nick Alexander and a record-breaking performance by sophomore Giovanny Lima in the pool, and junior Kyle Goodwin’s sweep of the men’s diving events. The No. 10 Mizzou women similarly eased their way to a 146-88 victory, led by senior Sharli Brady’s two individual swimming wins and senior Kendra Kieser’s sweep of the women’s diving events.
With the win, Mizzou men’s swim and dive moved to 5-2 (1-2 Southeastern Conference), while the Mizzou women improved to 3-4 (0-4 SEC). The narrative of the season for the Tigers, supremacy and an undefeated mark over all opponents outside the competitive SEC, continued for both teams with this nonconference victory.
Head coach Greg Rhodenbaugh commended Missouri State’s improvement from Mizzou’s previous meeting with the Bears this season at the Show-Me Showdown as well as his team’s resolve in a competitive environment.
“Missouri State has gotten so much better lately,” Rhodenbaugh said in a press release. “The coach, Dave Collins, has done a great job building the team. I have a lot of respect for them and they did a great job of racing today. We won but we had really good races down there with them.”
Overall, Mizzou racked up 15 individual wins across the swimming and diving events and two relay victories.
The standout Mizzou men included Lima, who won the 500-yard freestyle (4:28.79) to shatter the previous Missouri State Hammond Student Center Pool record set back in 2011. Alexander won both the 200-yard individual medley (1:41.98) and 200-yard backstroke (1:49.45). Lima leads Mizzou swim and dive with 11 event titles on the season.
In men’s diving, Goodwin continued his consistent season, sweeping the 1-meter and 3-meter events with scores of 376.95 and 356.55, respectively. The Colorado native remains the top Mizzou men’s diver, accounting for all men’s diving event wins on the season.
Top Mizzou women performers included Brady, with two individual wins in the 200-yard butterfly (2:03.34) and 400-yard individual medley (4:24.49), and Kieser, who swept the women’s 1-meter (304.12) and 3-meter (295.28) diving events.
Brady continued her breakout season, reaching 10 event titles on the year with her two wins in Springfield. Kieser, meanwhile, has enjoyed her success more recently in 2018, earning back-to-back sweeps of the women’s diving events against Texas A&M and Missouri State, a first for any Mizzou diver this season.
Mizzou swim and dive finished its road trip 2-1 and will be back in action on Jan. 25 when it hosts its final dual meet against Drury on Senior Day.
_Edited by Joe Noser | jnoser@themaneater.com_