The Billiken men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams competed in an invitational at University of Missouri-Columbia last weekend. Overall, the men’s team placed sixth out of seven teams and the women’s team placed seventh out of nine.
The top women’s team performer was sophomore Morgan Peterson. Peterson came in 11th place in the 400-yard individual medley and eighth in the 100-yard butterfly. Her time for the butterfly was 55.72, which was the best time for a female swimmer at SLU.
On the men’s team, the leading performer was sophomore Patrick May. May competed in six individual events and five relays. He posted personal bests in several of his events. His times for the 100-yard backstroke and 100-yard freestyle are currently the best times in the Atlantic 10 Conference.
“My performance far exceeded my expectations. I swam very well at the Mizzou invitational, posting personal bests for my college career,” May said of his performance.
“Our team performed right where they should’ve for a mid-season, three-day-rest meet. We were pretty competitive with Lindenwood and Missouri S&T. Not very many had big swims over the weekend, but people were still swimming quick,” May said of the team’s showing as a whole, adding, “This mid-season taper meet is generally used as a way to see where our stroke or racing techniques can be improved.”
Junior Taylor Rogers, who took part in six individual events and four relays, relished the chance to compete against a larger number of squads from other universities.
“We have several dual meets in a season, but it’s nice to have bigger invites like the one this past weekend because it’s good practice for our A-10 Conference meet,” he said.
Competing in the invitational were swimmers from the University of Missouri, University of California at Davis, Boise State University, UNLV, Florida International University, Drury University, Lindenwood University, Clemson University, Missouri University of Science and Technology and North Dakota.
The next meet for the swimming and diving teams will be held Jan. 12 in Indianapolis. The Billikens will face Indiana University, Purdue University at Indianpolis and Western Illinois in a double dual meet.
