Bears Complete First Day at SMU Invite
Courtesy of Missouri State Sport Info
Team Results
DALLAS, TEXAS – A pair of 500 freestyle first-place finishes from Libby Howell and Pawel Krawczyk highlighted the Missouri State swimming and diving team's first day of competition at the SMU Invitational Thursday evening at Robson & Lindley Aquatics Center.
At the conclusion of day one, the women rank sixth among competing programs with 115 points while the men slot in at the fifth-place spot with 210.5.
MSU began the long-distance freestyle portion of the evening with back-to-back individual titles, starting with Howell's last-second effort to edge past Power Five LSU's Alexis Daniels, beating her by two-tenths of a second with a 4:50.13 mark.
"I was really happy with our day one performance," said Howell. "The team has been putting in a lot of hard work and it's exciting to see that effort rewarded."
Moving to the men's side, the Bears provided a 1-2 punch as Krawczyk and Antonio Thomas finished as the frontrunners in the 500 freestyle. Krawczyk touched the wall three seconds ahead of Thomas for the gold time of 4:20.20. MSU placed four of the top eight swimmers in the event as Sebastian Odent and Jonathan Hill rounded out the A-final contestants.
"This race was an almost perfect start to the meet," said Krawczyk. "It loaded me with a huge amount of positive energy for the rest of the invitational."
The Bears continued to impress in the later freestyle races, as Anna Miller and Samuel Senn each sported a top-three placement in the short-distance 50 freestyle.
Miller and Jacob Schultz pulled in key points for the Bears in the opening individual events, both placing fourth with times of 54.22 and 48.50, respectively.
Arthur Cury and Sydney Radloff capped the Bears' A-final finishers in the 200 IM, as Radloff swam to a personal-best 2:02.04 mark while Cury took home the runner-up spot at 1:47.88.
"Today was a solid day of racing for everyone," said Radloff. "I am especially proud of my swims today, including achieving a personal best time in the 200 IM."
Michael Claunch finished behind a pair of SMU divers to claim third on the high dive, turning in a 320.60 effort.
The Bears resume competition tomorrow with prelims at 10 a.m.
