Water Dawgs fall to SMS

Salukis blow big lead, lose final meet to Bears

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It became the turning point of the meet - one that would give the Water Dawgs a defeat by conference opponent Southwest Missouri State.

With only the 200-yard breaststroke and 400 freestyle relay left to go in the meet, SMS head coach Jack Steck approached the timekeeper's table.

"I want an up-to-date score, including the diving," Steck said. "I don't think that's too much to ask."

The Saluki and Bears women had been sitting around, waiting for the diving competition to end, and as they climbed the starting blocks to prepare for the 200 breaststroke, they were asked to step down and wait a little longer while scores were tallied.

Every one of them voiced their disappointment. They wanted to race.

When the scores were finally announced, the SIU women led by more than 20 and the men led by 3.

It seemed as if the women had a comfortable enough lead, but the Bears still had a chance. The men were right in the thick of it.

The women took to the water, but SMS took the top three spots to gaining 15 points on the Salukis. In the men's 200 breaststroke, the Bears captured the top two times and took the lead in the meet.

There was still one meet to go, and either team could win it all, but the Bears were the ones with their hands raised in victory after the meet. The final scores were 124.50-118.5 (women) and 126-117 (men).

"I certainly didn't expect us to be in the situation where it came down to the last relay again this year," Walker said. "On paper, we had no business being in the hunt on the last relay. The fact that they couldn't get it done before the relay, I'm extremely pleased with our guys.

"Right now, they are the team to beat coming in to conference, that's obvious. We have our work cut out for us. That's something I like and our guys like. They're hungry."

Along the way, the Salukis secured first-place finishes from the 400 medley relay team of Marcelo Possato, Bryan Riekena, Adam Gangl and Matthew Glowacki; Derek Helvey (200 freestyle); Adam Gangl (200 individual medley) and Marcelo Possato (200 backstroke).

The SIU women first-place finishers were: Elizabeth McGowan (1,000 freestyle); Suzanne Souders (200 individual medley); Andrea Johnson (3-meter diving); Brigitta Olson (200 butterfly); Melinda Page (100 freestyle); Suzanne Souders (200 backstroke); and Ashley MacCurdy (500 freestyle).

"You have a team that fought real hard, gave themselves better than a fighting chance when they had no right to expect that and they lost. They're going to be hungry," Walker said. "You have a team that wins, now they're going to be looking over their back."

Just before the meet delay by the Bears coach, the Salukis took a few moments to say thanks to a few of their own. SMS was the last of the regular season meets, and the last in the college careers for five Saluki seniors.

Jake Sinclair, Dave Likar, Danilo Luna and George Oxinos all received crowns and Water Dawgs autographed t-shirts for their service to the Salukis.

"You get a little emotional," Likar said. "You realize that you're not going to be here next year. You want to do good and there's lots of stress involved. Sometimes you deal with the stress the right way. Sometimes you don't. Hopefully, you'll look back on your four years and say you did some good for the team and had good times."

On the women's side, only Amber Mullins is a senior. Besides the shirt and crown, Mullins was given flowers and balloons.

"It's kind of shocking because it doesn't feel like it is the last home meet," Mullins said. "The last four years have blown by. Still, it's kind of exciting."

Whether it was the last regular season meet for the Saluki seniors or not, they have not forgotten there is still a Missouri Valley Conference championship to be won next month in Carbondale.

The teams' feelings were summed up in the post-meet huddle and the words that were shouted to the Bears across the pool.

"SMS! See you at conference!"

Reporter Christopher Morrical can be reached at cmorrical@dailyegyptian.com