The Missouri Valley Conference competed in the ninth week of the 2024-25 swimming and diving season. The Valley had three men’s and women’s programs compete in meets last week. Indiana State competed for the women while Ball State and Miami competed for the men.
The Valley will have only one women's team competing next week with Indiana State closing out the 2024 calendar year.
Henju Duvenhage had a dominant week at the Miami Invitational, participating and placing first in four relays, as well as finishing first in all of his individual events. Duvenhage started off swimming in the 200-yard freestyle relay finishing first with an individual time of 19.75. Up next for Duvenhage was the 200 IM where he earned a first place finish with a season best time of 1:44.78. Duvenhage finished day one with the 400-yard medley relay with another first place finish, swimming the butterfly leg recording a time of 46.51. Day two kicked off with the men's 200-yard medley relay where Duvenhage swam the backstroke leg, posting an event best time of 21.31 and tacking on another first place finish on the day. Duvenhage finished day two off with a first-place in the men's 100-yard backstroke clocking a season best time of 47.12. Day three for Duvenhage consisted of a first place finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay where he swam a time of 43.45.
Claire Parsons earned NCAA B Cut status for the first time in her collegiate career and led the Sycamores to arguably one of the best weekends in program history at the Miami Invitational. Indiana State posted 14 school records and won seven events over the three-day weekend at the Corwin M. Nixon Aquatic Center. Parsons was responsible for three of the records set establishing new marks in the 500-yard, 1000-yard, and 1650-yard Freestyle events, while also qualifying for the A-Finals in both the 200-yard Freestyle and 200-yard Backstroke. She was also on the event-winning 800-yard Freestyle Relay team that topped the field by nearly nine full seconds. The sophomore shined in her signature event, the 1650-yard Freestyle, where she broke the school's record in both the 1000-yard Free with her split of 9:57.49, while her time in the 1650 of 16:31.28 won the event by 16 seconds and was inside the NCAA B Cut.
Ball State junior diver Porter Brovont place second on both the 1M and 3M boards at the Miami Invitational. His best score came on three-meter with a season best effort of 304.85. Brovont was fourth coming out of the 3M prelims, with a score of 243.70, but turned up the heat in the finals to fall just 2.05 points shy of the event winner. Brovont scored 279.65 on 1M, just 2.20 points shy of the event winner.
Daniela Orta Castaneda was Indiana State’s leader on both the 1M and 3M Springboard events over the weekend as the senior advanced to the consolation brackets in both events. Orta Castaneda was 13th overall in the prelims of the 3M posting a six-dive score of 208.20, before rallying back to take second overall in the consolation bracket with a score of 222.90. She followed up finishing 14th overall in the prelims of the 1M with a six-dive score of 198.70. She finished the weekend eighth in the consolation with a score of 185.00.
Drew Watson had a fantastic week at the Miami University Invitational, posting a fifth place finish and third place finish with both times being personal bests as well as a third place relay finish. Watson started his week with the 200-yard medley where he finished third on the B team swimming the backstroke leg with a time of 22.78. Next up for Watson was the 100-yard backstroke, where he placed fifth with a personal best time of 49.28. The next day Watson competed in the 200-yard backstroke and placed third, where he turned in a personal best time of 1:48.51.
Gemma Dilks was one of the highest scorers for the Indiana State women’s swimming and diving team and established a new program record in the 200-yard Fly in the process to highlight her weekend at the Miami Invitational. Dilks was the fifth-highest individual point scorer in the meet posting 59 total points overall posting top-three finishes in the 200-yard IM, 400-yard IM, and 800 Freestyle Relay, while also finishing in the A-Finals in both the 200-yard Fly and 1650-yard Freestyle. The Tiverton, Devon, England native opened the week finishing third overall in the 200-yard IM with a time of 2:02.60. She followed up finishing second overall behind teammate Alexandria Cotter for the 400-yard IM title with a time of 4:20.01. She led off the team’s B-Team 800-yard Freestyle Relay team posting a time of 1:51.54 in leading the team to a third-place result. She added a season-best time in the 1650-yard Free in 17:09.05, before wrapping up the weekend setting a new mark in the 200-yard Fly in 2:00.21. Her time broke one of the program’s oldest marks set back in 2018 at the MVC Championships.