OMAHA, Neb.-The UNO swimming & diving team dropped a 177.5-122.5 decision to Division I Illinois State on Saturday at HPER Swimming Pool. 

Sophomore Tiesha Scipio led the Mavs with first-place finishes in both the 50-yard freestyle and the 100-yard free. Scipio improved her time in the 50-yard freestyle from the previous meet at Northern Colorado, posting a mark of 24.64. Scipio also clocked a time of 53.57 in the 100-yard free. 

Junior Cami Hansberry notched a time of 1:01.09 in the 100-yard backstroke. Senior Colleen Klaiber won the 100-yard butterfly in a time of 59.33.

Freshman Lexi Bergeron won the 500-yard freestyle for the second time this year, in a time of 5:15.63.

Sophomore Kylie Rathbone scored nine points for the Mavs with a first-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke in a time of 1:07.72. 

The Mavericks' 400-yard free relay team of Scipio, sophomores Whitney Korgan, and Erin Wright and freshman Jenna Foiles, swam to a second-place finish in a time of 54.14. 

Illinois State's Valerie Jones led the Redbirds with two first-place finishes in the 1000-yard freestyle and the 400-yard individual medley to help her team to the win. 

“This season is very important to our program. We have intentionally taken the path of scheduling strong Division I programs with the desire of establishing markers to compare ourselves,” Head Coach Todd Samland said, “This weekend we earned six wins with five different athletes. We weren't able to win the meet because Coach Paska and the lady Redbirds have a high level program with good depth. It is our team goal to rise to that next level through team unity and hard work.”

UNO returns to action on Saturday, Oct. 29, on the road at Northern Iowa at 1 p.m.