CLEVELAND — The Southern Illinois swimming and diving program concluded its 2019-20 season on Thursday at the CSCAA National Invitational Championships. The men’s team placed 13th overall with 64 points while the women’s team finished in 16th with 59 points. The meet, originally scheduled from March 12-14, was cut short two days due to the evolving COVID-19 public health threat.
Freshman swimmer Lucia Romero led the Salukis at the NIC, as she advanced to the finals in the women’s 50-yard backstroke and 50-yard freestyle. The Zaragoza, Spain native finished runner-up in the 50-back finals with a time of 24.94. UNLV’s Kate Afanasyeva edged Romero for the title by .15 seconds. Romero was 17th overall in the 50-free finals at 23.59.
Another SIU freshman, Adam Cernek, finished near the top of the standings in the men’s 50-back with a third-place mark of 22.34. He placed 14th with a time of 1:49.98 in the 200-yard individual medley prelims, but did not compete in the finals.
Both the men’s and women’s team competed in relays at the start and conclusion of the finals session.
The quartet of Cernek, Kyle Berquist, Tamas Hajtman and Zheng Yang Yeap took eighth overall in the 400-yard medley relay. The eighth-place mark was SIU’s top relay finish of the day. The same four indivudals swam to 14th place in the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:23.93).
The Saluki women swam to 12th in the 200-free relay (1:35.05) and 13th in the 400-medley relay (3:46.24).
Divers Beibei Ji and Baobao Ji participated in the one-meter dive prelims at NCAA Zone C Diving Championships Zones prior to the cancellation of the meet. Baobao placed 27th (245.90) and Beibei finished close behind in 31st (242.55).
