Southern Illinois finished second in the 400-yard freestyle relay with a .65 second better time than MSU, even though the Bears set a school-record time. The second place finish was just enough to give SIU a half-point win over MSU with a final score of 799.5-799.
“It’s kind of crazy,” Bears head coach Dave Collins said. “We had over seven hundred points and it only came down to a half point.”
The second place finish for MSU ends their historic run of eight-consecutive MVC Championships. Collins said that talk of a nine-peat didn’t come up very often, but the team is aware of the history and tradition of the program.