The Valpo men’s and women’s swimming teams closed out the regular season Saturday at Southern Illinois, with the men competing in a dual meet against Eastern Illinois and the women competing in a tri-meet. Valpo’s effort was led by sophomore Gus Rytting (Houston, Texas/Lamar), who picked up a pair of event victories in the breaststroke events.

How It Happened

• Rytting touched the wall first in the 100-breaststroke for the Brown and Gold’s first win of the day, posting a time of 58.79. Valpo placed 1-2 in that event as junior Billy Bennett (Libertyville, Ill./Libertyville) finished second with a time of 59.32.
• Rytting then placed first in the 200-breaststroke with a time of 2:08.84 in the event.
• Junior Dominic May (Naperville, Ill./Naperville Central) picked up an individual win for Valpo in the 50-free as the junior clocked a 21.48, with freshman Brett Little (Princeton, Iowa/ North Scott) right behind him in second place with a time of 22.09. May also had second-place finishes in the 100-free (46.50) and the 200-free (1:45.08).
• Daniels picked up a win for the Brown and Gold in the 500-free, clocking a 4:52.42. He also picked up a second-place finish in the 1000-free, finishing in 10:09.57.
• Junior Derek Eidson (Ventura, Calif./Ventura) collected two second-place finishes, finishing runner-up in the 100-back with a time of 53.64 and in the 100-fly with a time of 53.45.  
• Brett Strongman (Wolverine Lake, Mich./Walled Lake Central) finished second in the 200-fly with a 2:02.50 time.  
• The team of Eidson, Bennett, Strongman and Little clocked a 1:36.74 in the 200 medley relay to place second.
• The men finished the day strong as Little, Noah Zapolski (Davenport, Iowa/Bettendorf), Adam Chwieros (Lake Villa, Ill./Grayslake North) and May finished second in the 200-free relay, finishing in 1:25.67. The time moved the quartet into eighth place in program history in the event.
• Mikayla DePover (Rock Island, Ill./Rock Island) had the most impressive day for the women, as the sophomore finished second in the 100-breaststroke with a time of 1:06.47 and in the 200-breaststroke clocking a 2:27.32.   
• Sophie Morelock (Milan, Mich./Milan) collected multiple fourth-place finishes in the 1000-free with a time of 11:16.29 and in the 200-back, clocking a 2:12.90.  
• Freshmen Trinity Springer (Gurnee, Ill./Warren Township) and Kenzie Conn (Celina, Ohio/Celina) and sophomore Morgan Markley (Bluffton, Ind./Norwell) all recorded top-five finishes as well. Springer placed fifth in the 50-free, clocking a 25.30. Conn collected a fifth-place finish in the 100-back in 1:00.81, while Markley placed fifth in the 500-free with a time of 5:29.12.
• The team of Conn, DePover, Lucy Gascho (Lebanon, Ind./Lebanon) and Mariah Sturdivant (Chicago, Ill./George Westinghouse Prep.) placed fourth in the 200-medley relay with a time of 1:50.98, just .41 off of Valpo’s top-10 chart all-time in the event.
• The women ended the day in the 200-free relay as the team of Conn, Sturdivant, Springer, and Markley placed fifth in the 200-free relay, touching the wall in 1:39.38, just .19 away from a top-10 time in program history.
• The men fell to Eastern Illinois by a score of 148-113 while the women fell both to Southern Illinois (211-50) and to Eastern Illinois (144-118).

Up Next

The women’s swimming team heads to the MVC Championships starting on Wednesday, April 14, while the men start action at the Summit League Championships on Thursday, April 15.