COLUMBIA, Mo. - The Mizzou men's and women's swimming and diving teams hit the road for this week for a tri-dual in Bloomington, Indiana, on Wednesday, Oct. 10 at 9 a.m. CT. The Tigers will face Notre Dame and host Indiana in the meet. Kentucky will also be in attendance but the the Tigers and Wildcats will not face each other as Mizzou hosts Kentucky for a Southeastern Conference clash in early November. 

LAST TIME OUT

The Tigers opened their 2018-19 seasons with a sweep of the team titles at the 13th annual Show-Me Showdown Friday at the Mizzou Aquatic Center on Oct. 5. The squads combined to win 24 of 26 events on the day as the women scored 709 points and the men 674 points to take the wins. 

A total of 12 different Tigers posted event victories in the Showdown, highlighted by four who earned two wins each on the day.

Senior Annie Ochitwa (Highlands Ranch, Colo.) pulled a double with wins in the 200 IM and 100 fly. She went 2:04.14 in the 200 IM and clocked a 55.28 in the 100 fly for her victories. Junior Giovanny Lima (Sao Paulo, Brazil), who led the men's team in event wins a year ago, earned a sweep of the 200 and 500 free races with times of 1:37.60 and 4:27.99, respectively. Also sweeping a pair of free events was sophomore Sammie Jo Porter (Flower Mound, Texas), who claimed top honors in the 100 free (51.89) and 200 free (1:50.35). Junior Nick Alexander (St. Louis, Mo.) nabbed a pair of wins as well. He touched first in the 200 IM in 1:47.53 and placed first in the 100 back in 48.24.

Additionally, freshmen Ana Pozder (Apex, N.C.) and Sarah Rousseau (Melbourne, Fla.) each claimed the first wins of their collegiate careers. Pozder earned a first-place finish in the 500 free (4:58.34) and Rousseau took first on 3-meter with a score of 276.10.

MEN'S OUTLOOK

The 2018-19 squad returns eight Tigers with All-America honors to their name: seniors Sam Coffman, Kyle Goodwin, Luke Mankus, Mikel Schreuders and Jacob Wielinski, juniors Daniel Hein and Giovanny Lima and sophomore Grant Reed. Additionally, seven individual NCAA participants also return: Goodwin, Schreuders, Wielinski, Hein, Lima, junior Nick Alexander and sophomore Carter Grimes. 

WOMEN'S OUTLOOK

Coming off a 15th-place finish at the 20018 NCAA Championships, this year's women's team returns five All-Americans: seniors Maddie Gehrke and Annie Ochitwa, junior Haley Hynes and sophomores Lauren Savoy and Sarah Thompson. Hynes, Ochitwa and Thompson join seniors Kylie Dahlgren and Courtney Evensen as 2018 NCAA Championships qualifiers. 

GUTIERREZ-LOZANO, GUYETT CLAIM CSCAA NATIONAL OPEN WATER CHAMPIONSHIPS

Redshirt sophomor Giovanni Gutierrez Lozano and freshman Audrey Guyett claimed individual national titles at the 2018 College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) National Collegiate Open Swim Saturday morning at Lone Star Lake in Lawrence, Kansas, on Sept. 22. Guyett and Gutierrez Lozano also led the men's and women's teams to team titles at the event.

Gutierrez Lozano defended his 2017 title with a swim of 59:17.48, eight seconds faster from his winning time from a year ago. He narrowly out-swam junior Giovanny Lima, who finished second in 59:17.77. 

Guyett won the women's race by just shy of a minute, as she finished the race in 1:03:06.31. Fellow freshman Ana Pozder held on for second-place in 1:03:07.28.

ALEXANDER MAKES 2018-19 USA SWIMMING NATIONAL TEAM

Junior Nick Alexander was named to the USA Swimming 2018-19 National Team on Sept. 4. The 2018-19 USA Swimming National Team features the top six athletes in each individual Olympic event based off the combined results of the 2018 Phillips 66 National Championships, 2018 Pan Pacific Championships and 2018 Junior Pan Pacific Championships.

Alexander was the fifth-fastest American in the 200 back in 2018, notching a 1:57.18 in prelims at the 2018 Phillips 66 National Championships in July. He ultimately finished eighth in the event at the Championships with a 1:58.49 in finals, and also posted finishes of 10th in the 100 back, 12th in the 50 back and 15th in the 200 IM at the meet.

KOVAC NABS RELAY GOLD AT JUNIOR PAN PACS

Freshman Danny Kovac earned a gold medal as part of the U.S. 4x100m relay team at the 2018 Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Aug. Kovac and U.S. teammates Adam Chaney, Destin, Lasco and Drew Kibler combined to post a 3:19.44 in the 4x100 free relay to nab first and the gold, finishing over a second ahead of second-place finisher Australia (3:20.86). Kovac swam the second leg of the relay. 

The freshman, who made the Junior Pan Pac team after claiming the 18-and-Under 100 fly national title in July, also competed in five individual events at the meet, posting three top 10 finishes. He took ninth in the 100 fly with a 53.12 finals swim after a 52.70 in prelims. He also placed 10th in both the 100 free (50.58 finals, 50.12 prelims) and 200 IM (2:03.34 finals, 2:05.02 prelims). Additionally, he also took 15th in the 50 free and 20th in the 200 free. 

UP NEXT

The Mizzou women travel to Nashville, Tennessee, to take on Vanderbilt on Saturday, Oct. 13 at 10:30 a.m. CT. 

ORDER OF EVENTS

200 Medley Relay
1000 Free
200 Free
100 Back
100 Breast
200 Fly
50 Free
1-Meter
100 Free
200 Back
200 Breast
500 Free
3-Meter
100 Fly
200 IM
400 Free Relay