TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – Indiana State swimming and diving hosted their inaugural relay meet tonight (Dec. 2) inside the Vigo County Aquatic Center. The Sycamores finished in second place narrowly falling to St. Louis with 214 points.

Battling through illness the Sycamores competed hard against opponents Maryville, Eastern Illinois, and St. Louis.

"I think we did a great job tonight. St. Louis is a really good program as is Eastern Illinois and Maryville, but our hard work from this past week showed through. The team is tired and battling illness, so we are definitely not at full strength, but we still came in and won seven of the ten relays and had our divers perform well which shows the toughness in our program," said head coach Matt Leach.

Numerous different relays were swam throughout the night starting with the 3x100 yard butterfly relay. The team made up of Jacquie Price, Cierra Campbell and Martina Marks kicked off the day with a second place finish and time of 2:56.05.

Following this start Indiana State continued their momentum heading into event two, the 3x100 backstroke relay.

Kendall Hansen, Emily Boomershine and Marlene Pavlu Lewin all provided notable performances as the Sycamores earned a first place finish with a time of 2:53.92.

The young Sycamore squad continued to work and outperform their competition coming up with yet another win in the 3x100 breaststroke relay as Blanca Saez-Illobre, Kerry Tepe and Megan Schade dominated the pool finishing with a 3:24.41.

The 800 freestyle relay was next on the list for the Sycamores. During the Bearcat Invitational on Nov. 16-18 ISU shattered the school record in this event placing a new time to beat of 7:46.49.

Tonight's relay team of Vivian Kritikou, Pavlu Lewin, Elisabeth Peskin and Campbell finished second falling just short of the school record.

After a 15 minute break to regroup and warm down the Sycamores were back on the blocks for the 500 yard freestyle relay.

The Sycamores finished in second and third place with the team of Joelle Borchers, Taylor Christie, Katherine Minatra and Peskin earning a 4:53.13.

Indiana State continued to battle through the meet continuing their fight into the 400 medley relay where Hansen, Saez-Illobre, Price and Kritikou finished in first place with a 3:58.72.

ISU continued to push throughout the next events earning a first place finish in the 200 freestyle relay, another first place finish and time of 50.20 in the 100 yard medley relay and a first place finish in the 400 IM relay.

The Sycamores came out hot in the final event of the night the 400 freestyle relay where the team of Campbell, Pavlu Lewin, Kritikou and Hansen finished off the night with a first place finish and a time of 3:33.99.

"We're excited to continue on with season as we have one more home dual meet where we'll honor our lone senior Laura Fulton. We're going to continue working hard and getting better," said Leach.

Indiana State divers Laura Fulton and Mckenzie Plummer each competed in a diving relay for the Sycamores earning a combined score of 345.67 which gave them a second place finish in the one meter and three meter dives.

Individually Fulton scored a 189.45 while Plummer added a 156.22 in the one meter dives while Fulton recorded a 176.70 and Plummer earned a 132.30 in the three meter competition.

"They showed better consistency and better strengths on their dives tonight. They both have worked very hard the past two weeks and I'm looking forward to seeing how we perform in January," said diving coach Fengting Chen.

Indiana State will be back in action on Jan.6 welcoming Wittenberg, Wabash and Depauw to the Vigo County Aquatic Center at 5 p.m. This meet will also serve as senior night as the Sycamores will honor their only senior, Laura Fulton.

For the latest information on the Sycamore Swimming and Diving team, make sure to check out GoSycamores.com. You can also find the team on social media including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.