Women’s Swim and Dive Falls to Illinois

MSU v Illinois and Liberty Complete Results

In a meet head coach Matt Gianiodis described as “tightly contested” earlier this week, the women’s swimming and diving team dropped a close meet to Illinois Friday night 178-122 at McCaffree Pool.

Coming into the meet, the Spartans had loss their last two meets to the Illini by a combined 16 points.

The first half of the meet saw many quality races for Michigan State. Junior Rebecca Berman won the 1000 freestyle in thrilling fashion, winning by .22 seconds in a race she trailed by two body lengths at one point.

Following Berman’s clutch performance was senior Summer Strickler, who out-touched an Illini swimmer to win the 200 freestyle at 1:52.37.

The Spartans struggled in some events during the second half of the meet, getting fifth and sixth place in both heats of the 200 backstroke.

Grieving Times

Matt Gianiodis’ father, Gus Gianiodis, was honored with a moment of silence before the meet, as he passed away on October 14 at the age of 87.

After the meet, Gianiodis sent his thoughts out to his assistant coach, Kathleen Milloy, whose father “will probably not make it past the weekend.” Milloy was not present at the meet.

Listen to post-game interviews from Gianiodis, Berman and Strickler.

Max King is the host of Pool Time for Impact Sports

Photo: Max King