Nov. 3, 2004

Columbia, Mo. - The University of Missouri men's and women's swimming and diving teams will host the Salukis of Southern Illinois this Saturday at 3 p.m. in dual meet at the MU Natatorium.

The men's team will be looking to avenge their 171-129 loss to SIU in Carbondale last November. Then-junior Matt North took first place in the 100-yard breaststroke, with a time of 55.43 seconds, and the 200-yard breaststroke, clocking in at 2:02.50, but it wasn't enough to overcome the Salukis.

"The men's team hasn't won a meet in a long time," Missouri head coach Brian Hoffer said. "The last one came against Truman State in our pool (in October of) last year, so we're going to try to get over that on Saturday."

The Mizzou women's squad, on the other hand, heads into the SIU meet looking for their second consecutive win, after their comeback victory over arch-rival Kansas last Saturday. The two teams haven't faced each other since 2001, when the Tigers handed the visiting Salukis a 163.5-73.5 defeat. Lindsay Palbykin, then a freshman, notched third-place finishes in the 100 and 200-yard freestyle events, and Becca Dawson, also a Tiger rookie at the time, earned a second-place finish in the 200-yard butterfly.

"The most important thing for our women's team is that we can't have a let down after last Saturday," Hoffer said. "Southern Illinois is a good team, and they're strong in their conference. We can't have a let down if we want to beat them Saturday."

The men's team enters the meet with an 0-1 record on the dual season, having lost to Texas A&M, while the women evened up their dual record at 1-1 with their win over the Jayhawks. The SIU men's squad has won its' only dual meet of the year, defeating Evansville, and the Saluki women own a 1-1 dual record after losing to Nebraska in their last outing.

Admission to the meet is free.