The UNI swimming and diving team headed south this past weekend to Columbia, Mo., to compete in this year’s Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.

The Panthers started out strong in the first day, finishing second at the end of the session and trailing Missouri State by just two points.

Day one was highlighted by a 200-meter medley relay from the team of Katie Taylor, Moriah Ross, Crystal Florman and Abby Meyer, who now all own a new school record with a time of 1:40.50, cracking the old time of 1:41.11. Taylor also notched another school record in the 200-freestyle with a time of 1:49.46, beating the old record by 25 hundredths of a second.

After the second day of the championships, the purple and gold continued to hold second place as they trailed top-placed Missouri State by 78.5 points.

Day two consisted of four personal bests. Florman set a new school record in the 50-meter freestyle with a 22.68. Others with personal bests were Ross who swam a 2:03.94 in the 200-individual medley, Meyer with a 23.65 in the 50 freestyle and Anika Lillegard-Bouton, who earned a 5:06.99 in the 500 freestyle.

The sophomore mid-distance swimmer Taylor was also able to successfully defend her title in the 200-individual medley with a time of 2:03.94.

On the third day, the Panthers fell one spot, finishing third place overall. The day was highlighted by Taylor scoring runner-up in the 400 Individual Medley with a 4:19.17, followed by the squad of Taylor, Ross, Florman and Meyer as they took first place in the 400-medley relay ending the ten-year reign of Missouri State winning the event.

On the final day of the tournament, the women of UNI had slipped down to fourth place, finishing the tournament with 497.5 points overall.

The fourth day was highlighted by Florman, taking first in the 100 freestyle, and Ross earning gold in in the 200-breaststroke with a 2:13.80.

Two Panther swimmers received individual awards following the meet as senior Florman earned the Missouri Valley Conference Swimmer of the Year and Taylor earned the Elite 17 Award, which is given to the athlete with the best academics and athletic performance.

Florman, Taylor, Meyer and Lauren Havertape received first-team all-conference, while Kylie Engstrom and Lauren Kacmarynski received honorable mention all-conference.