Swimming & Diving Notebook (PDF)

Swimmer
Sydney Zupan, Sr., Missouri State (Wildwood, Mo.)
 200 Medley Relay – 2nd place, 1:45.48
100 Fly – 1st place, 55.74 seconds
100 Back – 2nd place, 55.79 seconds
400 Free Relay – 2nd place, 3:31.88
 
Making quite the impact in the Bears’ first meet of the season, Zupan came away with one individual victory and three second-place finishes at the Missouri Show-Me Showdown. Competing against SEC powerhouse Missouri, as well as Saint Louis, Washington, Lindenwood, Maryville and Missouri-St. Louis, she came out with a big win in the 100 fly, touching the wall in 55.74 seconds to beat every Missouri Tiger in the event. Grabbing her second-highest finish of the day, the Wildwood, Mo., native took second in the 100 back with a time of 55.79 seconds - just .67 seconds behind Missouri’s top swimmer. In a team effort, she also aided the Missouri State relays to second-place finishes in the 200 medley and 400 free relays.
 
Diver
Baobao Ji, So., Southern Illinois (Taiyuan, China)
Sophomore diver Baobao Ji dove in two meets in September. In the first meet against Lindenwood, Ji won the three-meter dive with a score of 288.80 and took second in the one-meter dive with a score of 279.30. Against Evansville a week later, Ji took home first in the one-meter dive with a score of 278.62. She also had the second highest score in the three-meter dive against Evansville at 269.17.
 
 
 
Other Top Performances:
Swimmer
Danielle Freeman, Sr., Evansville
Senior Danielle Freeman led the way for Evansville this weekend at the Butler Quad meet. She started the afternoon with a 2nd place finish in the 50 freestyle with a 24.00 finish. Additionally, she took the win in the 100 freestyle with a final time of 52.76.
 
Jensen Keck, So., Illinois State
Keck won two individual events in Illinois State’s season-opening dual victory over Indiana State Saturday at Horton Pool. She finished first in both the 100- (1:05.38) and 200-yard breaststroke (2:23.21). She was also a member of the winning 200-yard medley relay team (1:49.05). Keck was an All-MVC First-Team selection in 2016-17.
 
Bryn Handley, Sr., Southern Illinois
SIU’s senior swimmer Bryn Handley swam in two meets for the Salukis in the month of September. In the first, the CSCAA Open Water National Championships, Handley led the Salukis to fifth place finish while taking home the Open Water National Championship individual crown. Handley swam the five kilometer race in 1:04:39.22 to defeat swimmers from Missouri, Kansas and Rice to earn the individual title of Open Water National Champion. In the second meet of September, a relay meet hosted by MVC foe Evansville. Handley helped the 400 and 200-yard freestyle relay teams to wins in the meet with times of 3:35.25 and 1:38.74 respectively. She also helped the Salukis to a fastest time in the 500-yard relay time trial with a time of 4:36.91. Her relay team was more than 11 seconds faster that the second quickest team.
 
Diver
Courtney Coverdale, Sr., Evansville
Senior diver Courtney Coverdale dominated the boards this past weekend at the Butler quad meet. She handily won both 1-Meter and 3-Meter competitions, scoring 242.50 and 262.55 points respectively.
 
Emily Aument, Fr., Illinois State
Aument won both diving events against in Illinois State’s season-opening dual victory over Indiana State Saturday at Horton Pool. Aument finished first in both the 1-meter (2:45.77) and 3-meter (2:10.89) diving events.
 
Ashley Yarbrough, Fr., Missouri State
1-Meter Board – 2nd place, 230.30 points; 3-Meter Board – 6th place, 234.60 points
Newcomer Ashley Yarbrough put on an impressive performance at the Missouri Show-Me Showdown. On the 1-meter board, earned her highest finish of the meet taking second overall out of six divers with a total of 230.3 points. Later that night, she racked up a total of 234.6 points on the 3-meter board, earning a sixth-place finish out of 16 divers. The only divers ahead of her in each event, were from Missouri.