Missouri Valley Conference Preview

Marshall Universities Swimming and Diving team will be competing this week in the Missouri Valley Conference in Iowa. 

Events begin Wednesday and will run through Saturday, with the conference hosted this year by the University of Nothern Iowa, in Cedar Falls, Iowa.  

This will be Marshalls first year competing in the conference.  

Along with Marshall, there will be a total of nine other schools competing in the conference. The other competing schools are Evansville, Illinois State, Indianna State, Little Rock, Missouri State, University of Nothern Iowa (UNI), Valparaiso and the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC).  

Head coaches from each competing team have made predictions on who will be taking the first-place trophy back home to their university. Missouri State has been voted most likely to come out on top, with five coaches predicting the school to place first in their polls.  

Marshall finds itself in the top half of the predictions, placed at 5th place by the coaches. The bottom team on the predictions list is Valparaiso, due to their heavy number of underclassmen making up most of their team. Valparaiso team is consisted of 12 freshman and sophomores, and only three upperclassmen.  

Marshalls top three team members are Eszter Laban, Paige Banton and Mia McBride. Laban is currently Ranked 1st in 500 Free & 1650 Free and Ranks 2nd in the 400 IM in MVC. Banton sits 2nd, 4th, & 7th, respectively, in the 50, 200 and 100 Breaststroke in the MVC. Three-time Freshman of the Week, McBride sits 2nd & 3rd, respectively, in the 50 and 100 Backstroke in the conference league. 

In just this season, starting in the fall, Marshalls team has set 13 all-time top 10 marks.  

On Wednesday evening, the events will be the 200 Medley relay and the 800 freestyle relay. Thursday morning will have the 500 freestyle, 200 individual medley, 50 freestyle and the 1-meter prelims and consolation. Thursday evening will have finals for the 500 freestyle, 200 individual medley, 50 freestyle, 200 freestyle relay and 1-meter diving. Friday morning will have 100 butterfly, 400 individual medley, 200 freestyle, 100 breaststroke and 3-meter diving. That evening will have finals for all of those events and the 400 medley relay. Saturday morning will have the 200 backstroke, 100 freestyle, 200 breaststroke, 200 butterfly and the 1650 freestyle. That evening will conclude the conference with finials for all of Saturdays events and the 400 freestyle relay and 3-meter diving. 

Along with the first place, other awards and titles that will be given out at the conference are swimmer of the year, freshman swimmer of the year, swimming coach of the year, diver of the year, freshman diver of the year, diving coach of the year and the elite 17.