(LEBANON, Ill., Oct. 20) – The McKendree University men's and women's swimming & diving teams head to Saint Louis University (SLU) for a meet on Saturday at 9 a.m. at the Simon Recreation Center on the SLU campus.
 
This meet will be the second competition for McKendree, after receiving impressive swims from several athletes at the Derby City Invitational in Louisville, Ky. There are four teams competing in the meet at SLU, including Marshall University, University of Arkansas – Little Rock, Saint Louis University, and McKendree University.
 
Women's Swimming & Diving
Freshman Magdalena Knapp (Bolzano, Italy/Gymnasium Walther von der Vogelweide Bozen) earned one first place finish as well as two second place finishes at the Derby City Invitational, which was enough for her to earn the Great Lakes Valley Conference Swimmer of the Week Award. While the women earned sixth place in the Derby City Invitational, it was not due to a lack of stellar performances. Milica Sostarec (Alexandria, VA/Medical High School) earned first place in the 50-yard freestyle, Knapp earned first place in the 200-yard freestyle, Knapp also earned second in the 100-yard butterfly and 100-yard freestyle. The women's team captain Sydney Rey (Columbia, IL/Columbia High School) swam to a second place finish in the 200-yard backstroke.
 
The women have three times inside the top 20 in NCAA Division II swimming:
#15 50 Free: Šoštarec - 24.43
#19 100 Fly: Knapp - 59.17
#20 200 Free: Knapp - 1:56.69
 
Men's Swimming & Diving
The men's team swam to a fourth place finish at the Derby City Invitational. The team is captained by senior Josh Lamb (Conroe, TX/Arizona State University), who swam to three first place finishes in the four events he competed in. Matija Pucarevic (Belgrade, Serbia/Sixth Belgrade Grammar School) also swam his way to three first place finishes and a second place finish in the four events he competed in. Luca Simonetti (Sassari, Italy/Liceo Scientifico Gulielmo Marconi Sassari) also competed in four events, earning three first place finishes and one second place finish. McKendree received several top five performances from Jack Davies (Conroe, TX/Woodlands College Park High School) and Cole Morgan (George Town, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands/Cayman International School), as well as some top ten swims from Matthew Meals (McKinney, TX/McKinney Boyd High School), Zach Breeding (Midland, TX/Midland High School), Tyler Hayes (Lubbock, TX/Coronado High School), and Jakub Debkowski (Arlington Heights, IL/Rolling Meadows High School). The team of Pucarevic, Simonetti, Lamb, and Morgan earned a first place finish in the 200 medley relay. While the team of Simonetti, Morgan, Debkowski, and Pucarevic earned a second place finish in the 400 freestyle relay.
 
The men have seven times inside the top 25 in NCAA Division II swimming:
#11 200 Breast: Lamb - 2:08.49
#12 100 Fly: Pucarevic - 51.26
#14 100 Breast: Lamb - 58.48
#15 100 Free: Pucarevic - 46.91
#20 400 Free Relay: Simonetti, Morgan, Debkowski, Pucarevic - 3:15.44
#20 200 Medley Relay: Morgan, Lamb, Pucarevic, Simonetti - 1:36.25
#23 500 Free: Simonetti - 4:46.74
 
"We are very excited to be competing against some very competitive Division 1 teams this weekend," said head coach Jimmy Tierney. "I have a lot of respect for these programs, SLU in particular, who is coached by the veteran Jim Halliburton. He's done a tremendous job with developing some very competitive Billiken swimmers over the years and I'm anxious to see how we step up against some higher level of competition this weekend. This will be a great test for us."