Missouri
Louisville
Tigers Fall To Louisville, 185-168
11/15/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming and Diving
Nov. 15, 2008
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The No. 20 Missouri women's swimming and diving team wrapped up the second of two days of competition against the No. 23 Louisville Cardinals, dropping the meet by a score of 185-168. The women entered the day in a tight 86-81 battle, but the Cardinals won several early events and held on to a 185-168 victory.
"I thought our depth was really good, but we just couldn't win races," Missouri Head Coach Brian Hoffer said. "We have to win more than we did to have a chance, but I thought we raced well. Louisville stepped up and won the races they had to."
The highlights for the Tigers came in the form of junior Colleen Gordon and freshman diver Jordan Morcom, who both set Louisville pool records. Gordon dominated the 400 IM, winning the event with a time of 4:25.28. Gordon and senior teammate Jill Granger battled back and forth early in the race, but Gordon ultimately pulled away and defeated runner-up Granger by almost two seconds while shattering the old Ralph Wright Natatorium time of 4:26.63.
In the well, Morcom added a Louisville pool record to her already impressive resume. The freshman, who won the 3-meter yesterday and has already tallied three other individual victories on the year posted a score of 327.15 in today's 1-meter to break the old pool record of 324.68. Senior Kendra Melnychuk came close to breaking the pool record herself, posting a runner-up score of 324.15, while freshman Christina Gailey took third after scoring 270.75.
The impressive 1-2-3 finish by the divers gave the team a chance to pull out a victory in the last event, the 400 free relay, but the Tigers would've needed a 1-2 finish to accomplish that feat.
"The divers did great going 1-2-3," Hoffer said. "Gailey really stepped up to get that third-place spot and give us a chance going into the last relay. We did enough to give ourselves a chance to win, but you never want to have to go 1-2 in the last relay to pull it off."
While Missouri didn't go 1-2, they did take the second and third-place spots, which included the ninth-fastest 400 free time in school history. The foursome of senior Lori Halvorson, freshman Lisa Nathanson, senior Allie Bennett and sophomore Francie Szostak secured that spot in the record books with their time of 3:26.15, while senior Lauren Cox, freshman Stephanie Rovig, sophomore Lauren Lavigna and senior Carly Sullivan touched in at 3:29.93 for third.
The Tigers did get a 1-2 finish earlier in the day, when Halvorson and Szostak accomplished the feat in the 200 freestyle. Halvorson, a co-school record holder in the event, took gold with a time of 1:50.19, just edging out Szostak's 1:50.38.
Granger recorded her second runner-up finish on the day with her performance in the mile, swimming in 17:15.63. Sullivan took third in the 1650 free, touching at 17:21.89, while Rovig scored points with her fourth-place finish and time of 17:26.47.
The women recorded another 2-3-4 finish, this time in the 100 back. Lavigna took silver after being edged out by a touch. Lavigna finished at 57.11, while Louisville's Raine Thompson touched at 57.01. Szostak took third for Missouri at 57.96, while freshman Amber Molina finished with a time of 58.47, good for fourth.
Gordon and junior Molly Bollen went 2-3 in the 100 fly, with Gordon finishing at 56.38 and Bollen at 57.12.
"We really enjoyed the two-day format," said Hoffer. "It was good for us to go against two top-25 teams who are ranked right around where we are."
They were definitely geared up for us. Their band was there, their fans were great, their parents and our parents were yelling back and forth. It was a good-natured hostile environment, which is what we wanted that meet to be. It was a lot of fun."
The No. 21 Missouri men suffered their first dual loss of the season on Saturday, falling to the No. 18 Louisville Cardinals by a total of 218-135. The Tigers entered the day trailing 92-75, but the Cardinals proved to be too strong to overcome the deficit.
"Louisville had too much firepower," said Hoffer. "Our guys posted great efforts, and we had some decent times for this point of the season, but Louisville was able to beat us, especially in the shorter races. It just came down to us not being able to win races."
The men opened the day by taking second and third in the 200 medley relay, with senior Jake Hoffmann, junior Martin Cernansky, senior Gilad Kaufman and sophomore Jordan Hawley finishing at 1:31.69, while freshman John Higgins and seniors Ted Harris, Eric Smith and Matt Dahlke took third with a 1:35.02 finish.
Sophomore Spenser Lauver followed up the 2-3 relay finish with an impressive run in the 1650 free. Lauver came in second, finishing at 15:54.78, just four-tenths of a second behind the winner. Redshirt sophomore Cameron Sellers would give the Tigers another runner-up finish later in the 200 free. Sellers touched at 1:41.92.
Missouri's only victories on the session came in the diving well, where sophomore Dante Jones and junior Greg DeStephen went 1-2 in the 1-meter. Jones bounced back from a disappointing performance in the 3-meter during day one to post a score of 317.17 to take first place. DeStephen took second with a 288.82, while junior Ryan Meeker took fourth with a score of 250.87.
The Tigers will return to action in December, when they host the Mizzou Invite from Dec. 5 to Dec. 7.
