Women Take First; Men Place Third at Chicago Invitational

Full Results

CHICAGO - - The Truman women's swimming team came from behind to capture the Fourth Annual Phoenix Fall Invitational, hosted by the University of Chicago this Friday through Sunday. The Bulldogs edged out the host Maroons by 4.5 points for first, while the Bulldog men jumped one spot to third on the final day of the event.

On Friday night, the Bulldogs opened the three-day event with a pair of top individual performances by Brynn Guardado, who placed second in the women's 1650 Free (17:25.72) and Jerod Simek, who turned on the jets to fly past the rest of the pool with a 15:44.69 first-place time in the men's 1650 Free. His time was nearly 57 seconds faster than the second place finisher.

In addition, the women's 400 Medley Relay team of Beth Eyanson, Abby Hempen, Adrian Rudd and Casey Jepsen held off Div. I Southern Illinois by nearly three seconds for first place, winning with a time of 3:53.74.

Then, on Saturday, Guardado (2^nd; 5:04.38) and teammate Allison Harding (4^th; 5:07.35) started a Bulldog rally with their finishes in the women's 500 Free before Simek and Levi Hanks went 1-2 in the men's 500 Free with times of 4:35.66 and 4:36.16.

Another Bulldog tandem of Hempen (2^nd; 1:06.17) and Margaux Kent (3^rd; 1:06.37) racked up points in the 100 Breast before a quintet of Bulldog women – led by Melanie Wilkes' time of 2:07.31 – finished 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th, 6^th and 7^th in the 200 Back to jump into the women's team lead. Rudd (2^nd; 2:07.44) and Calla Kingery (4^th; 2:11.43) scored a combined 32 more points in the women's 200 Fly, with Jepsen logging a second-place finish in the women's 100 Free (52.61).

The women then capped the night with a victory in the 800 Free Relay, with Guardado, Kristi Van Oost, Hempen and Jepsen touching in a time of 7:45.46, nearly nine seconds ahead of the host UC Maroons. The men then finished second in their version of the 800 Free Relay, hitting a time of 7:01.96 behind Simek, Hanks, Josh Daminato and Alec Morgan.

Finally, on Sunday, the women snapped up 58 points in the day's first event, the 400 IM, with four top-6 finishers, while Simek led four Bulldog male finishers in the top-7 with a first-place time of 4:04.81. Jepsen (1^st; 1:53.63) and Guardado (2^nd; 1:55.80) then took the top two spots in the 200 Free prior to Hanks (1:42.01) picking up a first-place finish of his own in the event just moments later.

Hempen (2:22.98) and Kent (2:23.46) then put up another first and second place finish for the Bulldog women, earning 37 team points in the 200 Breast, before Jepsen (24.67) sprinted to a second-place finish in the 50 Free a handful of events later.

The women headed into the final event with an 8.5 point lead on the Div. I Chicago squad, and picked up a third-place (3:35.29) finish in the 400 Free Relay – good enough to secure the team title as Chicago finished second and earned just four additional team points. The men earned their own third-place (3:12.20) mark, locking in a third-place overall finish behind the host Maroons and another Div. I school, Southern Illinois.

The Bulldog squads now rest until a Dec. 18 pair of away duals at William Jewell (Mo.).

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