MOBERLY, Mo. – The Vincennes University Lady Trailblazers opened their season Friday afternoon at the 2024 Orscheln Classic hosted by Moberly Area Community College in Missouri.

The Lady Blazers opened their season against Mineral Area College and came out on the wrong end of an 87-69 final score to the Lady Cardinals.

Vincennes got the season off to an excellent start, opening the game and quickly building an 8-3 lead in the first quarter.

Mineral Area battled back and closed out the quarter on an 11-2 run to take an 18-13 lead after the first 10 minutes of play.

The Lady Cardinal lead continued to grow in the second quarter, getting the lead to double digits at 29-19 before closing out the first half of action with eight straight points, giving Mineral Area a 43-28 lead going into the halftime break.

The Lady Blazers battled into the second half but were unable to get the lead back to single digits, with Mineral Area leading 69-53 heading into the fourth quarter of play.

Vincennes would gain some momentum early in the fourth quarter, opening the final period of play with an 8-3 run to cut the deficit to 11 before the Lady Cardinals swung the momentum back with a 9-2 scoring run of their own.

The two teams traded baskets down the stretch with Mineral Area holding off the Lady Blazers and coming away with the 87-69 victory.

The Lady Blazers were led offensively by a big double-double by sophomore Kennedy Johnson-Corley (Clarksville, Tenn.) who led VU with 29 points and 11 rebounds in her Trailblazer debut, while also coming away with three steals and two blocks.

Freshman Netala Dixon (Dyersburg, Tenn.) had a good all-around game, finishing with 13 points, three rebounds, three assists, two steals and two blocks.

Freshman Ahmya Thomas (Phoenix, Ariz.) was the third Lady Trailblazer in double figures, coming off the bench to score 13 points, grab five rebounds and dish out three assists.

The Lady Trailblazers will regroup and look to get in the win column when they return to Moberly Area C.C. tomorrow, Saturday, Nov. 2, for the final day of the Orscheln Classic.

Vincennes will close out their opening weekend slate against host Moberly Area Community College. Tip-off time is set for 6 p.m. eastern.

 BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – No. 4/6 Indiana men’s and women’s swimming and diving fell to No. 2/2 Texas in early-season dual meet action on Friday (Nov. 1) inside the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center in Austin, Texas.

Indiana’s day, split in two sessions, was highlighted most-of-all by its veteran men’s divers. Seniors Carson Tyler and Quinn Henninger finished 1-2 on both springboards. Tyler posted scores of 407.03 on 1-meter and 441.60 on 3-meter. Henninger was right behind him with scores of 353.78 and 408.98. Freshman Joshua Sollenberger placed fourth on 1-meter (339.23) and junior Maxwell Weinrich was fourth on 3-meter (375.45). On the women’s side, senior Skyler Liu was the runner-up on the 1-meter board (301.05) and third on 3-meter (312.93).

Sophomore Miranda Grana continued her fast form, winning the backstroke double. In the morning, Grana posted an NCAA A cut in the 200-yard backstroke with a 1:50.50, the fastest time in the nation this season. She followed it up in the evening with a 51.04 in the 100 back to become the second-fastest woman in program history.

IU swept the 200 back thanks to Grana and junior Owen McDonald’s program record and NCAA A cut 1:38.13 in the morning. McDonald toppled Brendan Burns’ 1:38.18 from the 2023 NCAA Championships.

Like Grana, junior Kristina Paegle won two events. Paegle outpaced Texas Olympian Erin Gemmell in the 50-yard freestyle (21.92) and 100-yard freestyle (48.11) and posted the meet’s best anchor splits in the 200 freestyle relay (21.42) and 200 medley relay (21.48).

Junior Zalán Sárkány posted Indiana’s second program record of the day in the 1,000-yard freestyle. His 8:39.44 was 10 seconds quicker than IU’s previous standard and finished second Friday by nineteen hundredths.

TEAM SCORES

Men: No. 2 Texas 97, No. 4 Indiana 89

Women: No. 2 Texas 123, No. 6 Indiana 63

HOOSIER WINNERS

Men

Luke Barr – 200 freestyle relay (1:16.57)

Finn Brooks – 200 freestyle relay (1:16.57)

Mikkel Lee – 200 freestyle relay (1:16.57), 50 freestyle (19.32)

Owen McDonald – 200 backstroke (1:38.13)

Dylan Smiley – 200 freestyle relay (1:16.57)

Carson Tyler – 1-meter (407.03), 3-meter (441.60)

Jassen Yep – 200 breaststroke (1:51.94)

Women

Miranda Grana – 200 backstroke (1:50.50), 100 backstroke (51.04)

Kristina Pa

VINCENNES, Ind. – The No. 18-ranked Vincennes University Trailblazers opened their 2024-25 campaign Friday night inside the Physical Education Complex with day one of the 2024 Kiwanis Classic against East Mississippi Community College.

The Blazers were able to battle back from a 13-point second half deficit to force overtime and come away with an 80-73 victory over the Lions.

Vincennes got off to a slow start in the season opener, with East Mississippi scoring the first seven points of the game, which VU immediately answered with a 7-0 run of their own.

VU broke away midway through the first half with a 13-2 scoring run to take a 28-18 advantage over the Lions before EMCC answered back with a late first half 12-0 scoring run to regain the lead at 35-32.

The teams would trade baskets going into the break with East Mississippi holding a 37-33 lead over the Trailblazers going into the locker room at halftime.

Coming out of locker room in the second half EMCC looked determined to put the game away early, building the largest lead of the game at 53-40 with 15 minutes remaining on the clock.

The Lion lead would remain at double digits before the Blazers got the crowd back into the game with an 8-0 run to cut the East Mississippi lead to 60-57.

VU would even the score at 61-61 with 3:30 to play before the Lions answered back with five straight.

Vincennes refused to go away, closing out regulation with a three-point play by sophomore and 2024 NJCAA All-American Lebron Thomas (Bishopville, S.C.) and a basket by sophomore Bryan Akanmu (Paris, France) evening the score again at 66-66 with 28 seconds left.

The VU defense would hold, sending this game into overtime.

In the overtime period, the two teams began by trading shots back and forth, with VU getting a spark off of a three by freshman Christian Andrews (Asheville, N.C.) before Lebron Thomas sealed the game late at the free throw line, closing out the victory for the Blazers by the final score 80-73.

“We just made more solid plays,” VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. “I thought we fought on the defensive end pretty well except for the last five minutes of the first half. Those last five minutes we gave in to a little bit of the ‘we’re ahead and I’m tired’ mentality and we were a little slow on close outs, a little soft on post defense. We got a little loose and we gave them a chance to get momentum and then it was a heck of a thing to get it away from them.”

“I thought we were fighting and trying to get traction the first 10 minutes of the second half,” Franklin added. “We just couldn’t quite finish plays and make the little shots. Of course they throw up one at the shot clock from about 40 feet. But we showed a lot of toughness tonight. We didn’t do anything special. We just said we need to get solid and get stops. We know what we need to do to get stops.”

“

UE splits Friday meet

 EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Friday afternoon saw the University of Evansville swimming and diving teams split their meet against USI at Wyttenbach Pool.  Evansville’s men picked up a 152.5-83.5 win while the ladies dropped a close 137-99 decision.

Patrik Vilbergsson, Carlos Souto, Daniel Santos Lopez, and Benjamin Hasanovic opened the day with a win in the 200-medley relay, finishing in 1:34.13.  Joseph Capo earned a solid win in the 200-free.  Registering a time of 1:46.36, he won by just under two seconds.  He picked up his second victory of the day in the 500-free.  His 4:51.32 was over five seconds in front of teammate Wyatt Gallas.

In the 50-free, the Purple Aces swept the top four positions with Hasanovic posting a 21.72 to best Sammy McCall’s 22.01.  Brendan Ulewicz was third with a 22.05 while Boris Tavrosky’s 22.30 was good for 4^th.  Santos Lopez earned top honors in the 200-IM.  With a 1:55.63, he was six seconds in front of the runner-up.  Joao Gulherme was third, posting a 2:03.71.  In the 100-fly, Santos Lopez swam a 50.96 to best the competition by 2.31 and finished his day with a win in the 100-breaststroke, recording a 57.91.  Hasanovic was second, finishing in 1:00.37.

The top six positions in the 100-free belonged to the Aces, led by Michael Pruett’s 47.60.  McCall came in just 0.16 behind while Jakob Grundbacher took third with a 48.81.  Vilbergsson led a top three UE sweep in the 100-backstroke, finishing in 52.29.  Logan Tenison was second, 1.50 behind while Logan Anderson came in third at 55.33.  The men completed the meet with a close win in the 200-free relay.  Tenison, Pruett, McCall, and Mohammed Rashed combined to swim a 1:27.41, finishing less than a half second in front of USI.

Highlighting the day for the women was another stellar performance by Maddie Rollett.  After earning the top spot in the 1-meter with a 265.35, Rollett swept the dives with a score of 255.90 in the 3-meter.  Leah Gardner was fourth in both events, earning a 189.75 in the 1-meter before registering a 194.63 in the 3-meter.

Sveva Brugnoli took top honors in the 200-IM.  Her 2:10.17 was two seconds in front of second place while Mari Mueller took third with a 2:17.20.  Evelyn Chin led a 1-2 finish for the Aces in the 100-fly.  Chin’s 58.53 was just 0.29 in front of Brugnoli.  Ane Madina was the top finisher in the 100-backstroke.  With a 59.98, Madina bested the competition by 1.49.

Madina, Brugnoli, Rafaela Markarewicz and Rebecca Lago took second in the 200-medley relay.  The group finished in 1:48.83, just 0.31 behind the top time.  Hannah Krings was the runner-up in the 500-free.  Krings completed her race in 5:31.99.  Markarewicz and Mueller came in second and third, respectively in the 100-breaststroke.  Finishing in 1:09.42, Markarewicz took second while Mueller checked in with a 1:09.65.

Next up for the Aces is a trip to Carbondale, Ill. for the A3 Invite.  It runs from Nov. 14-16.