Swimming & Diving | 1/30/2016 7:15:00 PM

Meet Results
MOORHEAD, Minn. – For the second time in school history, Minnesota State University Moorhead has beaten Minnesota State, Mankato in swimming and diving. The Dragons accomplished the feat with a 160-137 win over the Mavericks during an exciting afternoon of action on Saturday in Moorhead, Minn.

MSUM finished the regular-season 7-5 in duals.

The Dragons came into the meet ranked 48th by collegeswimming.com, while MSU was ranked 25th.

"You seriously couldn't write a better story with multiple freshmen stepping up and taking the torch from the seniors in the final home meet this year," MSUM head coach Todd Peters said. "Sami DuVal, Natalie Kampa, Linnaya Luoma, Taylor Beynon, and Erin Fons all had huge meets and you could see the pride in our seniors because they helped push the freshmen to this level.  Our distance crew came up big, our divers won like they always do and the intensity and excitement from the entire team pushed us to this win."

The Mavericks won the 200 medley relay by less than a second to open the meet.

"We lost the first relay in a close race just like we did last year and you could kind of sense that, 'here we go again' mentality, except I had told them this year we didn't need to win the first relay to win the meet so no one panicked," Peters said.

Mankato built an 18-point lead through the next three events and then freshman Erin Fons stepped up big time for MSUM with a 1:07.16 season-best to win 100 breaststroke.  Freshmen Sami DuVal (2:15.12) and Natalie Kampa (2:15.72) followed that up with a 1-2 finish in the 200 butterfly, with Kampa coming from behind on the last 25 meters.

"Those two races switched the momentum and you could see our team start to think maybe we could win this meet," Peters said. "We talked about the potential to win this meet at our team meeting on Friday, and honestly the team didn't really buy into until halfway through the meet today when we were just four points down." 

After a 1-2-3 finish by Mankato in the 50 free they held a 15-point advantage, 73-58.  The Dragon diving trio of senior Emily Pascavis, senior Jana Hedstrom and junior Amanda Groebner finished 1-2-4 to bring the score back to within four points.   Pascavis won with 429.30, followed by Hedstrom (427.27) and Groebner (392.84). All three scores were NCAA pre-qualifying marks.

The Mavericks finished 1-2 in the 100 free, although senior Annika Bordak (third at 55.15), junior Ashley Higgins (55.15) and junior Amber Helgoe (55.78) finished 3-4-5 to help the Dragons score in that event.

"The 100 freestyle was next and that is Mankato's best event," Peters said. "I told Bordak, Higgins and Helgoe that one of them finishing third would be a win for us and they responded by going 3-4-5, with Higgins swimming a lifetime best 55.61." 

Sophomore Erin Sullivan took control of the 200 backstroke next, leading start to finish and broke the pool record with a 2:07.82. Junior Madison Kuznia swam a season best 2:12.04 to finish third.

"We expected Mankato to go 1-2 in the 200 backstroke, so having Sullivan win with a pool record kept the momentum in our favor," Peters said.
Fons' delivered big again, winning the 200 breaststroke with a season best 2:25.55. 

"That race was so close from start to finish and then Fons swam a perfect final 50, just the way she has been training," Peters said.

The energy shift was obvious as the Dragons went 1-2-3 in the 500 free and 2-3-4 in the 100 fly.  Beynon won the 200 free in 5:25.96, followed by Kampa (5:30.97)) and junior Kelly Engbring (5:31.59). Bordak was second in the 100 fly (1:00.01), followed by Sullivan (1:00.57) and DuVal (1:02.36).

Pascavis picked up her second win in the meet in dominating fashion, taking the 3-meter diving with a pool and school record of 290.78. Hedstrom was second at 216.67.

"I have to give the team huge credit because they kept going after every single event and never let Mankato get back in to the meet," Peters said. "The icing on the cake was the 3-meter diving event when senior Emily Pascavis completely destroyed the pool and school records with a 290.78."
Beynon captured her second win in the 400 IM and put the meet out of reach for Mankato going into the final relay.

The Dragon divers have the Minnesota Challenge scheduled for Feb. 6 in Minneapolis, Minn. The next full team event is the NSISC Championships on Feb. 17-20 in Cleveland, Miss.