Ladies’s Swim and Dive Picks Up First Win of Season; Males Fall at Missouri State

CARBONDALE, Ill. – Southern Illinois swim and dive kicked off their 2025-26 season this weakened with a two-day meet at Missouri State. While the boys’s group fell 275-171, the ladies’s squad received their season opener, 260.5-181.5.
 
“It was a tough weekend of racing, but we are pleased to come away with a split result against a quality team who we’ve gone back and forth with for many seasons,” says head coach Geoff Hanson. “Many of our returning women stepped up and filled in where we were short handed. Our newcomers got good experience in a tough environment as well. We were happy with the overall meet win. The Missouri State men were very strong, and gave us a lot to work on as our young men’s team comes together. Many bright spots early in the season however.”
 
Inside the Results

• Freshman Lívia Munkácsi-Nagy had a improbable debut for the Salukis, taking first in three of her 4 particular person occasions, second within the different, and swimming for the successful girls’s 400-yard free relay group. 
• Olivia Herron picked up the place she left off from her All-American 2024-25. The senior picked up 4 particular person wins and one relay win. 
• Willem Huggins had a powerful day for the boys’s squad, ending first in each of his particular person occasions whereas being part of three relay wins. 

 
How It Happened
 
Friday
The meet began on Friday with the 400-yard medley relay, the place each girls’s groups bookended the rostrum whereas males’s A group took first with a 3:18.91. Moving to particular person occasions, Munkacsi-Nagy kicked off her freshman marketing campaign with a gold end within the 1000 yard-freestyle. The subsequent Saluki winner got here within the 50-yard freestyle when Ava Rines took first with a time of 24.43. 
 
Southern’s first particular person males’s winner got here within the 200-yard IM when Benedek Andor‘s 1:54.98 within the 200-yard IM was ok for first. Brooklyn Anderson received the subsequent occasion, ending the ladies’s 200-yard butterfly in 2:07.52. Another occasion win got here within the girls’s 100-yard freestyle, which noticed Zaria Terry atop the rostrum. 
 
Alex Cimera snagged his first win of the 12 months within the 100-yard freestyle, ending the race in 45.37. SIU then had its first podium sweep within the girls’s 200-yard backstroke, the place Liseska Gallegos Gutierrez, Munkacsi-Nagy, and Andrea Santos Arambula completed one via three. It was then Willem Huggins flip to face atop the rostrum, putting first within the males’s 200-yard backstroke. 
 
Reigning second-team All-American Herron took the win within the 200-yard breaststroke for the ultimate particular person win of the day. Moving again to relay motion, the Saluki squads took first and third within the girls’s 200-yard freestyle relay earlier than the boys’s A squad took the crown within the males’s 200-yard freestyle relay by simply 0.23 seconds. Southern’s last podium on Friday got here from Oliver Mebs, who completed second within the one-meter dive with a rating of 289.50. 
 
Saturday
Saturday began with a 200-yard medley relay win for the SIU girls’s A group. Cimera then grabbed Southern’s first particular person win of the day within the males’s 200-yard freestyle. Rines received one other occasion within the girls’s 50-yard freestyle. 
 
Munkacsi-Nagy’s improbable collegiate debut continued within the girls’s 400-yard IM, which she received by over 4 seconds. Later, within the girls’s 100-yard butterfly, Herron grabbed one other gold medal together with her 56.73 end. Another girls’s win got here courtesy of Terry within the 100-yard freestyle. And on the boys’s aspect of the occasion, Cimera stood atop podium along with his time of 45.50. 
 
SIU swept the ladies’s 100-yard backstroke podium due to Gallegos, Santos, and Tia Jankovics. Huggins then received the boys’s aspect of the occasion. Munkacsi-Nagy picked up one other win within the 500-yard freestyle to proceed her torrid meet. Herron picked up yet another win within the 100-yard breaststroke. 
 
The swimming occasions got here to a detailed with the 400-yard freestyle relays. Both girls’s squads reached the rostrum, ending first and third whereas the boys’s A squad took first. Mebs wrapped up the meet with a runner-up end within the three-meter dive. 
 
Up Next
SIU is again in motion this upcoming weekend with a visit to Chicagoland. On Friday, Oct. 10, they go to UIC at 3 p.m. earlier than shifting as much as Evanston, Illinois, on Saturday, Oct. 11, for a dual-meet towards Northwestern and Miami (OH) at 11 a.m.
 
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