Jan. 14, 2005
Kirksville, Mo. - The University of Missouri women's swim team split a pair of dual meets tonight at Truman State, as the Tigers defeated South Dakota by a score of 180-24 and dropped a heartbreaker to host Truman State, 108-96.
Truman State, the four-time defending NCAA Division II national champions, won the meet by winning the final event of the night, the 400 freestyle relay. Truman edged Mizzou in the race, with a pool-record time of 3:28.25. Mizzou's foursome of Shannon Hogan, Katie Gates, Megan Morford and Amanda Morford all swam lifetime best splits and came up just shy with a time of 3:29.76 - also better than the previous pool best.
Mizzou's women established three other pool records on the night, as senior Lindsay Palbykin broke the standard in winning the 100 freestyle with a time of 51.7, along with fellow senior Becca Dawson, who won the 200 butterfly in pool-record time of 2:03.91.
Also breaking the Truman pool record was the MU 400 medley relay team of Amanda Morford, Mariona Costa, Becca Dawson and Lindsay Palbykin, who won the race in a record time of 3:49.56.
Sophomore Shannon Hogan and freshman Katie Gates had a good swim in the 50 freestyle, as the duo went 1-2, respectively, in the race, with times of 24.09 and 24.33.
"All things considered, I'm encouraged by the effort tonight," said Mizzou Head Coach Brian Hoffer. "Certainly, you want to win a meet against a Division II school like Truman State, but there is no shame in losing to a school that has won four straight national titles, and as long as you give it your all, and the women did exactly that. I knew it would be a tough meet to win, because we train very hard over the break and this is a tough time to compete. You give Truman all the credit in the world, but I'm really pleased with how we swam overall, because I feel like this is the best we've ever swam right after training camp," he said.
With no time to rest, the Tiger women return to Columbia to swim in a dual meet Saturday afternoon against Southwest Missouri State. The meet is set for a 2 p.m. start at the MU Natatorium. There is no admission fee for the event.