Olivia Herron Sets MVC Record as Southern Illinois Sweeps UIC
Olivia Herron set a Missouri Valley Conference record among four program marks as Southern Illinois swept a pair of wins from conference foe University of Illinois Chicago on Saturday.
The Salukis scored a 202-96 decision on the women’s side and a 187-111 win for the men.
Herron, a junior from Manchester, England, had a meet remember. She set program records en route to victory in both breaststroke events and the 400 individual medley. Her time of 2:11.13 is more than a second quicker than the time she used last spring to win an MVC title. It erases the conference mark set in 2023 by Illinois State’s Madyson Moore (2:11.58).
Herron went 1:01.00 in the 100 breast to lower her program and Shea Natatorium mark. The same was true for her time of 4:17.17 in winning the 400 IM.
Herron also teamed with Celia Pulido, Bea Padron and Susana Hernandez to go 3:37.46 to win the 400 medley relay. That’s 1.1 seconds quicker than the time SIU used to finish second at the 2024 MVC Championships, which had been the school record. Puildo, Padron and Hernandez swam the same legs back in February, and Herron’s split of 1:00.22 was 1.25 seconds quicker than what breaststroker Ali Robertson supplied at the conference meet, making up most of the difference. Their time is .36 seconds off the conference record set by Missouri State in winning the title last year.
Pulido swept the backstroke events and won the 100 butterfly. Hernandez won the 100 free and 200 free, beating 50 free winner Zaria Terry in the former. Padron won the 500 free.
On the men’s side, Alex Santiago swept the sprints, anchored the winning medley relay and led off the victorious 200 free quartet. Willem Huggins swept the backstroke events after leading off the medley relay triumph. Henrique Pacheco won the 200 breast and 400 IM for the Salukis.