Saint Louis University swimming went out with a bang Tuesday at the Conference USA Championships in the IUPUI Natatorium in Indianapolis, Ind. The men”s team finished fifth over-all at the meet and the women finished in sixth place. TCU, ECU and Cincinnati each took the top three spots over-all for both the men”s and women”s teams.
‘I was really impressed with how we swam. Everyone did well,’ said coach Jon Halliburton.
Six individual and three relay school records were broken during the three-day meet, including the men”s and women”s 400-meter individual medley records broken by John Stoneburner and Megan Capellupo.
Stoneburner and Capellupo led all SLU swimmers in points, qualifying for the A-Finals of every event they entered, and both broke multiple school records.
Stoneburner broke the school record in the 200-meter individual medley, and Capellupo broke her own school record in the 200-meter breaststroke by almost three seconds with a time of 2:20.88 in what Halliburton called the best race of the meet.
Capellupo believes individual motivation during the meet came from within the team. ‘Everyone”s enthusiasm (motivated us). We were all excited and ready to go and that really seemed to unite us.’
Kelly Tessar also broke multiple school records in the 200 IM with a time of 2:09.69 and the 400 IM with a time of 4:36.37, for which she took sixth and ninth place finishes.
Other solid performances came from the men”s and women”s 800-meter freestyle relay teams. The men”s team of John Stoneburner, Christopher Johansen, Rich Sheridan and Andrew Long and the women”s team of Alice Altepeter, Maggie Norton, Megan Capellupo and Marisa Mackos each broke standing school records with a times of 7:05.35 and 7:59.65, respectively, earning each relay team a fifth place finish.
SLU swimming finishes 14-4 for the men to and 12-3 for the women on the year, a stark improvement over last year”s record of 1-9 and 0-9.
‘This has been a great four years. It”s good to know this team will have the ability to improve itself after the seniors leave. I hope the teams continues being great in the future,’ said senior Joe Valentino. Valentino earned a second place finish in the 400-meter butterfly event in the B-Final, as well as a first place in the B-Final of the individual medley.
