EVANSVILLE, Ind. – This evening, the Trojans broke the fifth and final relay record as well as shattered three individual school records to underline the Little Rock swimming and diving team's best conference championship outing in program history.
The team had 17 swimmers score points in the final session of the meet, compared to just four on day four at last year's championships. The squad's ability to finish the meet strong gave them a final team score of 772 points, more than double the amount tallied last year. Little Rock took sixth place finish in the nine-team field, their best place yet, and send off 12 seniors in their final conference championships:
Delaney Crowder,
Salina Damas,
Kasey Dunn,
Taylor Floyd,
Ashleigh Green,
Karina Harr,
Aubry Matthews,
Maci McCullough,
Fer Moussier,
Gabriella O'Neil,
Cheryl Poulsen and
Lexie Shelton.
Full Results |
Day Four Photos
"One of the big goals we had at the beginning of the season was to finish conference the right way, and I think we did just that," said head coach
Nathan Townsend. "Another big team goal was to get school records in all five relays and we also did that. We had so many huge swims throughout this last day."
Coach Townsend also reflected on the continued success of the rebuilding Trojan diving squad, adding, "I also want to give a big shout out to Kyra for crushing it on the 3 meter. Her and Chris have worked so hard for moments like that."
"Today marks our best finish in team history and I'm truly so proud of what we accomplished this season," he summed up. "The amount of success we found this year is overwhelming. I'll definitely have to take a few days to take it all in. I truly believe we all leveled up this year and I'm so excited to see what we can accomplish next."
400 Freestyle Relay
The squad of
Cheryl Poulsen,
Lauren Pieniazkiewicz,
Olivia Elgin and
Jaelle Carlson closed the meet with a massive 3:20.54, dropping nearly three seconds from their seed time. Carlson lit up the pool with a 49.03 anchor leg, while all three Trojans were under 51 seconds, including Poulsen's lead-off 50.80. The team took fourth overall.
200 Backstroke
In the first A final appearance of her career,
Caitlin Romprey snuck into the top heat with a best time by nearly a second. Then she dropped over a full second from the morning to the evening to climb to 5th place overall, stopping the clock at 2:00.48 - shattering the school record by a full second for an impressive finish to her junior campaign.
She was joined by classmate
Olivia Henderson, who competed in the C final and not only shaved off two seconds at night down to 2:04.71 but also moved up to 20th overall.
100 Freestyle
In another strong event for Little Rock, five Trojans advanced to the evening finals for big team points.
Cheryl Poulsen rounded out the A final with a time of 50.46 in her first-ever podium appearance. Her morning swim of 50.29 is now second all-time for the Trojans.
Jaelle Carlson and
Olivia Elgin raced in the B final, each swimming in their third final of the meet. Carlson hit a lifetime best 50.38 to take third in the heat, while Elgin dipped under the 51-second mark for the first time, clocking in at 50.96.
The C final saw
Lauren Pieniazkiewicz and
Gabriella O'Neil represent the Trojans, as the former posted a best time of 51.13 to finish as runner-up in the heat. O'Neil rounded out the final after putting up a lifetime best 51.84 in prelims.
200 Breaststroke
A second individual school record was broken by freshman phenom
Adara Stoddard, who not only destroyed the previous mark by a full second but also stood on the podium at night as the youngest Trojan on the roster to make the A final. Her time of 2:16.97 was good for seventh overall.
Seniors
Karina Harr and
Lexie Shelton competed in the final races of their careers in the B final and C final, respectively. Harr swam a best time of 2:21.04 in prelims before obliterated her time at night to finish with a time of 2:18.87. That puts her third on the Little Rock top times list. Shelton nearly matched her time from the morning despite swimming three times today, finishing at 2:22.68.
200 Butterfly
Gillian Boggs claimed her third and final individual school record to go three-for-three in her spectacular junior year showing at the MVC Championships. She touched the wall at 2:03.36 to place sixth overall, swimming over a second and a half faster than her time in the morning.
In the C final, fifth year seniors
Fer Moussier and
Ashleigh Green concluded their lengthy Trojan careers, also going faster at night. Moussier touched the wall at 2:08.43 for 20th overall and a season best time while Green came in at 2:09.55.
1650 Freestyle
Duru Sibik led the way for the Trojans in the longest pool event, dropping 50 seconds to finish with a lifetime best 17:45.31, moving her to fifth in program history. Teammates
Lara Alsader and
Lexie Shelton also scored points for the team.
3 Meter Diving
After qualifying for finals during Friday's prelims,
Kyra Apodaca came back for finals this evening to turn in a score of 256.40, good for sixth place overall. She is the first Trojan diver to compete in an A final since 2018. Apodaca's season is not over just yet, as the junior has qualified for the NCAA Division I Zone D Diving Championships, set for March 11-13 in Houston next month. The meet is a gathering of the best divers in the country to compete for a spot at the NCAA Championships.
Up Next
Several Trojans qualified for the CSCAA National Invitational Championships and will race next month in Ocala, Florida from March 14-16. Learn more about the meet
here.
Team Scores
1. Missouri State – 1463.5
2. Indiana State – 1294.5
3. Southern Illinois – 1126.5
4. Illinois State – 897.5
5. Northern Iowa – 835
6. Little Rock – 772
7. UIC – 753
8. Evansville – 312
9. Valparaiso – 206
For the latest information on Little Rock Swimming and Diving, make sure to check out
LRTrojans.com. You can also find the team on social media at @LittleRockSwim on
Facebook,
Instagram and
Twitter.
#LittleRocksTeam
