Feb. 4, 2002

ST. LOUIS - Saint Louis University swimming and diving fell to Eastern Illinois Saturday in both halves of the dual meet. The women scored eight first-place finishes, but lost the meet 173-125. The men scored firsts in three events and were downed 170-115.

The women opened the meet strongly with the top spot in the 200 medley relay to take an early 13-4 lead. EIU evened the meet in the next event and continued to build their lead from there. Freshman Megan Capellupo turned in three first-place finishes in the 100 and 200 breast and the 200 IM. Sophomore Lindsay Tekotte picked up the other swimming first with a 1:03.71 in the 100 fly. Sophomore Meaghan Hildebrand finished third in that race with a season-best time of 1:04.06. Divers split the other two first-place finishes as junior Kristi Cottral returned from knee surgery to claim first in the one-meter competition with a season-best score of 230.25. Sophomore Tessa Truesdell took top honors in the three-meter competition with a score of 223.00.

One the men's side, six swimmers posted season-best scores, including sophomore Greg Bowne who set new season highs in both the 100 and 200 breast. Bowne won the first of three top finishes for the Billikens when he finished the 100 breast with a time of 1:02.40 to win the first race of his career. His season-best 200 breast time of 2:21.88 was good enough for third place. Mark Wozny's season-best 2:20.55 time in that event took second place. Freshman Thomas Zenk picked up a first-place finish in the 500 free with a season-best time of 4:54.26, while Bobby Wolf also took first with a season-best 274.85 on the three-meter board. Fellow divers Brandon Copple and Curtis McKnight posted season bests on the one-meter board.

The Billikens have a week off before traveling to Indianapolis, Ind., on Feb. 17, for the inaugural Conference USA Swimming and Diving Championship.