IOWA CITY, Iowa – Another University of Evansville swimming record fell on Thursday, as freshman Sveva Brugnoli (Rome, Italy) lowered her own school-best mark in the 200-yard IM en route to being one of four Purple Aces to earn all-conference honors on the second day of the 2022 Missouri Valley Conference Swimming & Diving Championships in Iowa City, Iowa.
Brugnoli posted a time of 2:04.16 in the preliminary round to lower her own school record in the 200 IM. Brugnoli would eventually place eighth in the conference in the 200 IM to earn honorable mention all-MVC honors. She joined junior swimmer Sarah Jahns (Lilburn, Ga./Parkview) and divers Maddison Rollett (Evansville, Ind./Reitz) and Fae Keighley (Johannesburg, South Africa) to earn honorable mention all-MVC honors on Thursday.
“Today was a very good day for us,” said UE swimming head coach Stuart Wilson. “I really want to commend the divers, because every one of our divers did an outstanding job today. Both Fae and Maddie finished in the top eight, and Sarah (Kempf) and Maggie (Franz) were right there as well.
“Overall, we are pleased with how we have started off, but there is still work to do this weekend.”
Jahns earned honorable mention all-MVC honors by finishing sixth overall in the 500-yard freestyle, posting a personal-best time of 4:59.20 in the prelims and 5:00.25 in the “A Final.”
Rollett and Keighley placed sixth and seventh in the “A Final” on the one-meter diving boards with scores of 248.15 and 245.55, respectively, to earn honorable mention all-MVC honors.
Evansville also had strong showings in the “B Finals” on Thursday, as junior Maya Cunningham (Yakima, Wash./Eisenhower) finished second in the “B Finals” of the 200 IM with a time of 2:04.99, the second-fastest 200 IM time in UE history. Senior Jessie Steele (Houston, Texas/Klein) also finished third in the “B Finals” of the 50-yard freestyle with a personal-best time of 23.50, which placed her fifth all-time on UE’s career list. Franz and Kempf also finished fifth and seventh in the “B Finals” for the one-meter diving competition as well.
Overall, Evansville finds itself in fourth place after two days of competition at the MVC Championships. Day three will feature competition in the 100 Butterfly, the 400 IM, the 200 Freestyle, the 100 Breaststroke and Backstroke, the 400 Medley Relay, and the three-meter diving boards. Preliminary rounds will begin at 11:00 a.m. with finals set for 6:00 p.m.
