Flames Push Oakland to the Brink

UIC's Men Fall Just Four Points Behind Defending Champs

The UIC swim teams turned in standout performances in their dual meet with defending Horizon League champion Oakland Friday night at UIC Natatorium. The Flames' men came up just four points shy of a Golden Grizzlies squad that has never lost a conference meet since joining the league. UIC's women got three more wins from Lexie Joy and two victories from Christina Neri.

Postmeet Reaction

Tim Loeffler

Individual Highlights – Men

Hunter Crook was two seconds faster than the next finisher in his victorious 1650 free. Nate Jesko finished in third place.
Michael Tegeler took second in the 200 free with Nick Koto just behind him. Tegeler won the 200 back in 1:50.70.
Danny Sivak was second in the 100 breast and first in the 200 breast. He finished second in the 200 IM.
Luke Hutchinson won the 200 fly in 1:50.98, two and a half seconds ahead of the second place swimmer. He won a closely contested 500 free, a tenth of a second ahead of Hunter Crook.
Connor Homans and Ethan Lee finished second and third in the 50 free in a preview of their performances in the 200 free relay.

Individual Highlights – Women

Christina Neri continued her strong freshman campaign in the distance free events, winning the 1650 in 17:36.95 and the 500 free in 5:10.50.
Lexie Joy, Misha Neal, Morgan Bosse, and Maddie Hammer swept the top four spots in the 200 free.
Joy went on to win the 100 free in :51.80, out-touching Oakland's best swimmer by two hundredths. Lauren Johnson and Neal were third and fourth.
Joy made it three-for-three by winning the 200 IM.
Anna Scovill finished second in the 100 back in :58.59.
Jazmin Rivera turned in a second place swim in the 200 fly.
Lauren Johnson, Dani Cabrera, Beth Kelzer, and Nikki Eyssen finished second through fourth in the 50 free.
Hannah Olsen and Abby Kunze finished in the top three in the 200 back.

Diving Highlights – Men

Felix LaFortune came in second in the 3-meter event. His score of 306.18 was good enough to trump teammate Andrew Lewarchick, who was third.
Lewarchick took second on the 1-meter board, checking in with a score of 291.68. LaFortune and Ryan Murphy were close behind in third and fourth.
Diving coach Susan Bromberg was pleased with LaFortune's and Lewarchick's performances. "Felix comes from a program where he only competed three or four times a year. Getting mentally ready to dive every week is new to him, and he's learning to handle our schedule better each week. Andrew did well tonight and had some good dives on the 1-meter board."

Diving Highlights – Women

Cydney Liebenberg took the 3-meter crown with a total of 311.93. She blew away not only the NCAA Zone standard, which is 280, but also the field, which had just one diver come within 100 points of her score.
Liebenberg completed the sweep, winning the 1-meter event by scoring 269.18. She surpassed the NCAA Zone qualifying standard for the second time this year.
Natalie Williams was fifth on both boards.
"Cydney did not have a good week of practice," Bromberg noted. "She had a lot of self-doubt during the week but she was able to overcome that and post two zone scores tonight."

Relay Highlights – Men

Frank Ruppel, Danny Sivak, Mitch Milosch, and Connor Homans got the meet started with a second place finish in the 200 medley relay.
The Flames wrapped up the meet by energizing the crowd with a win in the 200 free relay. Homans led off, with Tegeler and Eric Weng following, and Ethan Lee brought it home by staying ahead of Oakland's A-team.

Relay Highlights – Women

UIC swam a tightly bunched group of 200 medley relay teams, with all three entries finishing within three seconds of each other.
The squad of Anna Scovill, Claudia Kirkpatrick, Mariah Clemons, and Lauren Johnson had the best finish.
Johnson, Cabrera, Misha Neal, and Joy took second in the 200 free relay. Scovill, Kelzer, Mariah Clemons, and Eyssen came in third.

Up Next