An electric crowd packed with friends, family, fans and a rare appearance from Truman the Tiger were treated to victory as the Missouri men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams dominated Drury University on Senior Day last Friday. The women finished with a 191.00-109.00 victory, and the men outscored Drury 173.00-127.00 for the win.
The meet began with a ceremony dedicated to the senior class.
“It was really emotional,” senior captain Jordan Hawley said. “I’ve been an athlete here for four years, and it’s kind of coming to the end.”
Despite terrific individual performances from the men’s and women’s teams, seniors fueled the day’s electricity.
“It was a really good atmosphere,” senior captain Francie Szostak said. “With all of our parents here and the band and all of our friends here to watch, we were all just really excited to swim.”
Szostak started off her meet with a second place finish in the 400-yard medley relay in 3:43.04, which also included fellow seniors Lauren Lavigna, Melissa Jamerson and co-captain Morgan McCleery. Szostak also garnered first place finishes in the 400-yard freestyle relay and both the 200-yard freestyle and the 200-yard IM. Her time of 2:01.38 in the 200-yard IM was good for second place all-time in school history.
“Most of us probably had our best meet in our entire careers,” senior captain Anders Melin said. “I know I had, and I’m pretty sure my co-captain Jordan Hawley did as well.”
Melin finished first in the 100-yard butterfly in 48.31 and second in the 50-yard freestyle in 20.88. Hawley finished first in the 50-yard freestyle in 20.44 and first in the 100-yard freestyle in 44.95. Melin and Hawley both led the men’s A relay team, which also consisted of fellow senior Roko Simunic and freshman Mark Conroy, to first place finishes in the 400-yard medley relay in 3:16.33 and the 400-yard freestyle relay in 3:01.10.
Other top performances came from sophomore Cassie Cunningham, who had four first place finishes, and junior Stephanie Rovig, who had three first place finishes.
On the diving board, sophomore Dallas Becerra placed first multiple times with a final score of 283.72 in the 1-meter dive and 301.13 in the 3-meter dive. Sophomore Sharon Finn finished first in the 1-meter dive with a final score of 275.25.
After the meet, coach Greg Rhodenbaugh praised his senior class for all they have done.
“The seniors have done a great job at leading and a great job at embracing some pretty significant changes that were made in the program,” Rhodenbaugh said. “They believed in it early and are starting to wreak the rewards.”
The reward was big wins for his seniors, but an even bigger reward would be a great showing in conferences, which is right around the corner.
“We’ve got people that went faster at this meet than they did at their invitational in December, which they were shaved and rested for,” Rhodenbaugh said. “I’m really excited and looking forward to three weeks of conference, and I think they are too.”
