Iowa City, Iowa—Indiana State swimming and diving came out hot on day two of the Missouri Valley Conference Championships.

The Sycamores set new school record during the preliminaries in the morning and then followed by breaking the records in each event of the evening finals.

Multiple Sycamores contributed to today's success. During the preliminaries ISU competed in the 500 freestyle, 200 IM and 50 freestyle which were the same events swam for the finals with the addition of the 200 freestyle relay.

Cierra Campbell, Elisabeth Peskin, and Jacquie Price kicked off the day for the squad competing in the 500 freestyle during the preliminary heats of competition. All three of the young Sycamores swam a strong race, but only Campbell qualified for the evening finals with a time of 5:08.50.

Following the 500 freestyle was the 200 IM which included Blanca Saez-Illobre, Kendall Hansen, Allie Engstrom, Emily Ratliff and Tessa Muzzy. Saez-Illobre set a new school record of 2:05.39 which secured her a spot in the evening finals. Hansen, Engstrom and Ratliff each added in season best times with Muzzy also contributing a strong showing for the Sycamores.

The final event of the morning preliminaries was the 50 freestyle and ISU set the bar high. Alex Malmborg set school record with a 23.63 and qualified for finals. Taylor Christie, Emily Boomershine and Mykenzie Kostka and each added in season best times coming up strong for Indiana State to end the morning session.

Despite the impressive performances during the preliminaries, Indiana State's all freshmen squad was still hungry for faster times. This ambition and passion showed during the evening finals of day two.

"We had an amazing finals session. When you're coming into a championship meet the morning swims are extremely important to get you the right placing in the finals. This morning we were a little sluggish getting going, but we managed to get three people back individually all in the B final, and tonight we came out hot," said head coach Matt Leach.

As the Sycamores prepared to repeat performances in the 500 freestyle, 200 IM and 50 freestyle, the energy on the pool deck was electric. Team morale was high and words of encouragement were being thrown out all over the place.

The Sycamores ended up going four for four with new school records, busting the previous times by substantial margins.

"I'm proud of how they handled the adversity from yesterday. It's been really fun getting to see how they are learning and growing from session to session. I am beyond proud of this group," said assistant coach Rebecca Westfall.

To kick off the evening finals Campbell swam a 5:06.40 in the 500 freestyle defeating the school record by just under a second and her previous in season best by almost two seconds.

Saez-Illobre followed this, swimming her impressive lifetime best with a time of 2:05.12. This crushed the previous record by .27 seconds.

After the 200 IM all teams participated in a five minute break. Following this break was ISU's most notable performance so far. Malmborg came off the block fast and absolutely crushed the school record in the 50 freestyle with a time of 23.44. This was also Malmborg's lifetime best. Her lifetime best has dropped a full second in just this last year, which is very rare and almost unheard of.

Indiana State finished off the night with their fourth school record in the 200 freestyle relay. The team of Malmborg, Hansen, Emily Boomershine and Campbell set a new standard with a time of 1:36.65.

"It was amazing. Three for three on our individual events and then we got ready for the 200 freestyle relay where we broke the school record by 2.3 seconds. We had solid splits and amazing swims out of Malmborg, Hansen, Boomershine, and Campbell. We are going to try and keep this momentum going into tomorrow morning," said Leach.

The Sycamores are back in action tomorrow morning for day three of the MVC Championships.

Go Sycamores!