The Valparaiso University men’s and women’s swim teams competed in a tri-meet at Southern Illinois with Arkansas Little Rock on Friday. Valpo had an abundance of top-10 finishes with junior Dominic May (Naperville, Ill./Naperville Central) boasting the best individual showing with three top-five swims.

How It Happened

• May had the most impressive finish on the day, tying for second place in the 100 free, stopping the clock at 47.05. His strong day continued when the junior placed fifth in the 100 back with a time of 56.69. May also anchored the team in the 400-medley relay alongside Derek Eidson (Ventura, Calif./Ventura), Billy Bennett (Libertyville, Ill./Libertyville) and Brett Strongman (Wolverine Lake, Mich./Wolverine Lake Central). That group finished third overall in the event, clocking a 3:34.90.
• Owen Bockman (Sycamore, Ill./Sycamore) had the highest finish in the 1000 free at fourth with a time of 10:20.25. Teammate Drew Wilson (Sugar Grove, Ill./Aurora Central Catholic) placed fifth, touching the wall at 10:46.37, followed by Kennan Burgess (Charlotte, N.C./Christ The King) placing sixth with a time of 10:49.42.
• Bennett continued Valpo’s solid showing as the junior placed third in the 100 breaststroke, touching the wall in 58.86. Rick Renner (Chantilly, Va./Lake Braddock) followed with a fifth-place finish in 1:01.74.
• Gus Rytting (Houston, Texas/Lamar) also had a third-place finish in the 200-breaststroke with the sophomore clocking a 2:08.62. Rytting recorded a fifth-place finish in the 100 IM with a time of 2:02.08 for his second top-five performance on the day.
• Bockman also recorded a fourth-place finish in the 200-back, clocking a 2:05.70.
• Daniels had impressive day that featured a fourth-place individual finish in the 500 free with a time of 4:53.96 and fifth-place finish in the 200 free in 1:47.50.
• Noah Zapolski (Davenport, Iowa/Bettendorf) notched a fifth-place finish in the 500 free with a time of 22.11.  
• Strongman had a pair of fifth-place finishes in the 100 fly (54.63) and 200 fly (2:03.45).  
• May and Zapolski joined Liam Winans and Brett Little to end the day with a third-place finish in the 400-free relay, clocking a 3:14.82.
• The women started of the day strong as Kenzie Conn (Celine, Ohio/Celina), MiKayla DePover (Rock Island, Ill./Rock Island), Lucy Gascho (Lebanon, Ind./Lebanon) and Mariah Sturdivant (Chicago, Ill/George Washington Prep.) placed fifth in the 400-medley relay clocking a team time of 4:10.15.
• DePover had the highest individual finish on the day, placing fifth in the 100 breastroke in 1:06.65. The sophomore also had a sixth-place finish in the 200 back (2:31.01) and a ninth-place finish in the 200-IM (2:18.79).
• Morgan Markley (Bluffton, Ind./Norwell) had multiple top-10 finishes on the day as the sophomore placed seventh in the 1000 free in 11:32.12 and ninth in the 100-free in 57.03. The sophomore finished with a 10th-place finish in the 500 free, clocking a 5:36.51.
• Gascho had three top-10 finish of her own, placing seventh in the 200 fly (2:28.05), ninth in the 100 fly (1:04.50) and 10th in the 200-IM (2:27.52).
• Trinity Springer (Gurnee, Ill./Warren Township) continued the trend as the freshman placed eighth in the 100 free (56.21) and eighth in the 50 free (25.25).
• The team of Conn, Markley, Springer and Sturdivant completed the day with a fourth-place finish in the 400-free relay, clocking a team time of 3:46.37.
• The men fell to Southern Illinois, while the women fell to both Southern Illinois and Little Rock.

Up Next

Saturday’s scheduled meet at Eastern Illinois has been canceled due to COVID-19 contract tracing associated with the Eastern Illinois program. Valpo will return to the pool for its Senior Day meet on March 27.