EVANSVILLE, Ind. – University of Southern Indiana Men’s and Women’s Swimming & Diving prepares to compete at the A3 Performance Invitational, hosted by Southern Illinois University, November 10-12.
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The Screaming Eagles will compete against Southern Illinois, the University of Evansville, Bellarmine University, Eastern Illinois University, and Valparaiso University. USI previously compete against the Knights and Crusaders earlier this season, going 1-3 against the two schools.
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USI Men
In their last competition at the Bellarmine Invitational, USI Men’s Swimming & Diving fell to both Bellarmine, 258-57, and Gardner-Webb University, 259-55. The Eagles finished the meet with 26 top-10 finishers, including four top-five finishes. USI finished fourth in the 200-Yard Medley Relay and finished fifth in both the 400 and 200-Yard Freestyle Relays.
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Sophomore Payton Buse (Lynnville, Indiana) was the lone Eagle to finish in the top-five of an individual event. Buse took fourth in the 50-Yard Freestyle. Other top-ten finishes for USI included freshmen Jack Hannon (Lowell, Indiana), 1000-Yard Freestyle, Gabriel Groves (New Carlisle, Indiana), 100-Yard Backstroke, and Caleb Davis (Spring, Texas), 100-Yard Breaststroke and Freestyle.
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The Eagles have eight swimmers leading them this season, freshman Carson Faley (Dixon, Illinois) leads the squad in the most events with three. He leads them in the 200 and 500-Yard Freestyles and the 400-Yard IM. Groves and Davis are the other two who lead the team in multiple events, Groves in the 100-Yard Backstroke and 200-Yard IM while Davis leads in the 100-Yard Breaststroke and Freestyle. Freshman Creed Loy (Knoxville, Tennessee) leads the team in the 1000-Yard Freestyle while Buse has the team lead in the 50-Yard Freestyle. Freshmen Gregory Benson (Plainfield, Illinois) and Jude Bragdon (Fishers, Indiana) lead in the 100 and 200-Yard Butterfly respectively. Freshman Liam Murray (Indianapolis, Indiana) leads the team in the 200-Yard Backstroke.
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Freshman Lane Pollock (Boonville, Indiana) leads the Eagles in diving this year. Pollock has scored a season-high 264.75 in the 1-Meter against Valparaiso and a 240.15 in the 3-Meter against Quincy University. Pollock was also named the Summit League TicketSmarter Men’s Peak Diver of the week on October 4 after the meet against Valparaiso.
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USI Women
In their last competition at the Bellarmine Invitational, USI Women’s Swimming & Diving fell to Bellarmine, 224-90, Gardner-Webb, 254-59, and Florida Gulf Coast University, 254-59. The Eagles finished the meet with 15 top-10 finishers and finished with just one top-five finish. The Eagles finished eighth in three of the four relays on the weekend, the 200 and 400-Yard Medley Relays and the 400-Yard Freestyle Relay.
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The top-five finish came from freshman Mattilynn Smith (Morgantown, Kentucky) in the 1000-Yard Freestyle where she placed fifth. Freshmen Sarah-Catherine Dawson (Prospect, Kentucky) and Hannah Gardner (Bowling Green, Kentucky) both had top-ten finishes as well, Dawson in the 200-Yard Fly and Gardner in the 400-Yard IM where they both placed eighth.
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USI has six swimmers leading them this season, all six leading in multiple events. Gardner leads the team with three events, those being the 100 and 200-Yard Breaststrokes and the 400-Yard IM. Smith leads the Eagles in the distance category, leading in both the 500 and 1000-Yard Freestyles. Dawson has taken the helm for both the 100 and 200-Yard Butterfly events. Sophomore Adele Schnautz (Evansville, Indiana) has been leading the team in both the 200-Yard Freestyle and the 200-Yard IM. Freshman Kate Hilgarth (Indianapolis, Indiana) has been the main backstroke performer, leading in both the 100 and 200-Yard Backstroke. Freshman Paige Neal (Owensboro, Kentucky) has been the dominate sprinter for USI, leading the team in both the 50 and 100-Yard Freestyle events.
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Freshman Autumn Turley (Hobart, Indiana) has led the team in diving this season in diving. In the 1-Meter she has a season high of 173.40 points while in the 3-Meter she has a season high of 155.92 points, both coming against Valparaiso.
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