TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – Indiana State swimming and diving officially opens up the 2024-25 regular season this weekend as the Sycamores make the trip to Normal, Ill. and the Horton Field House to take on Illinois State in a dual meet. Diving is set to start at 2:30 p.m. ET, while the swimming events begin at 4 p.m. ET. All results will be published live on MeetMobile.
 
"We're looking forward to officially kicking off our season on Friday," head coach Josh Christensen said. "Our meet schedule this year has quite a few challenging road meets and starting against a tough conference opponent is part of that. We've been gaining some momentum in training the last couple of weeks and our intrasquad meet was a chance to knock off some cobwebs and get into more of a racing mentality. We'll look to our upperclassmen to lead the way and use this as a growth and learning opportunity early in the season."
 
The Sycamores enter the regular season selected second overall in the Missouri Valley Conference preseason poll. Indiana State received 74 total points and three first-place votes as voted on by the league's head coaches after posting back-to-back runner-up finishes at the 2023 and 2024 MVC Championships.
 
Indiana State has firmly established themselves as a team to watch in the Valley over the last few seasons and the roster depth is back heading into this year.
 
Overall, Indiana State set 16 new school records over the course of the 2023-24 season and added multiple new Top 10 results on the all-time performance list. Kaleigh Kelley, Alexa Szadorski, Erin Cummins, Claire Parsons, Ali Pearson, and Alexandria Cotter all set new individual record-setting marks over the course of last season, and the Sycamores established four new relay records on the year.
 
The Sycamores return the majority of the roster from the 2023-24 season, including reigning Missouri Valley Freshman of the Year in Claire Parsons. She highlights 12 returning All-Conference performers in the pool and on the diving board including Cummins (500 Free), Parsons (500 Free & 1650 Free), Cotter (200 IM & 400 IM), and Kelley (100 Fly). Additional key returners to the squad include Dorotea Bukvic, Alexa Szadorski, Zoe Smith, Chloe Farro, Raz Harel, Ali Pearson, Haley Halsall, and Olivia Diruzza.
 
Indiana State held its annual Blue-Gray Meet this past weekend at the Vigo County Aquatic Center. The Blue Team took the win in the annual meet, snapping a two-year losing streak in the stretch, to claim bragging rights ahead of the season.
 
Several familiar faces picked up wins over the course of the meet including Farro (50 & 100 Free), Diruzza (200 Back), Cotter (200 Breast & 200 IM), Claire Parsons (1000 Free), Ali Pearson (100 Breast), Kaleigh Kelley (100 Fly), and Daniela Orta Castaneda (3M Diving). Newcomers Sophia Diaz (200 Fly), Lucia McDougall (1M Diving), and Sahara Visscher (100 Back) also picked up wins throughout the event to highlight their teams' performances.
 
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