Swimming loses first home meet
Mike Vaught
Issue date: 10/26/09 Section: Sports
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The 'Necks' first meet was difficult against a solid Missouri State team that already has faced some strong opponents.
At the Show-Me-Showdown, Missouri State's men's team defeated Missouri, while the women's side finished runner up against Missouri.
"Overall I was really impressed with how our team stepped up and took it to Missouri State as best they could," said head coach Greg Naumann. "I know Missouri State is always a tough team."
The 'Necks came out strong as the team of Laura Dinkelmann, Alayna Colley, Jamie Grau and Taylor Martin opened the meet with a win in the women's 400 medley relay with a time 4.09.01.
"For us on the women's side to take the 400 medley relay at the beginning and get first place in that by three one-hundredths of a second," Naumann said. "That's pretty big, and I wasn't actually expecting that one so the women's team stepped up."
Dinkelmann had a big night for the 'Necks, picking up two more wins in the 100- and 200-yard butterfly. Grau also had a solid night winning the 200-yard breaststroke.
"Laura's a champion in the two-fly at the Summit League last year so I anticipated her doing well," Naumann said. "Jamie Grau stepped up a bit more than what I thought pulling out the 200 breaststroke."
Junior Jeff Davis, who picked up a win in the 500-yard freestyle, led the men's side. The men's squad also got a victory as Phil Kurz, Brandon Wilkinson, Davis and Mike Regan won in the 200-yard freestyle relay.
"The men's team is definitely much stronger than the women's team at Missouri State," Naumann said. "Our guys team just tried to whittle away as much as they could trying to pick up those second and third place scores."
The meet gave Naumann the opportunity to see how his team would perform in a meet and see who would work best in a given event.
"I'm just really trying to figure out where everybody is going to be best-suited with the personnel we've got now," Naumann said. "So it's still a game to see who's going to be best set for the events as we go through the season."
For the 'Necks, the meet allowed the team to put everything that happened behind them.
"For the most part the entire team really just wants to get up and race," Naumann said. "That's really why every single one of them is in the pool going through the training that they are, they just want to race."
Next week the squad hosts St. Louis on Friday at 6 p.m. at Brophy Hall.
"We'll get plenty of racing going on here as we hit the next four weeks," Naumann said. "It's going to be a pretty rough period of time, but this time will end up I think really stepping up to the challenge and taking it in stride."
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