MANKATO, Minn. —- The Minnesota State women's swimming and diving team took first place in seven events in its dual vs. South Dakota Friday.

USD won the dual by the score of 177-129.

"Our women did a great job tonight vs South Dakota," head coach Nathan Owens said. "With this being our first meet of the season and doing the full 16-event line-up with the longer races, the coaches and I were very pleased with how we performed. Our divers did an amazing job and look like they're in mid-season form.

"I thought that our swimmers did a great job racing and competing across the board. We had really hard racing in every heat and posted some fast early season times. It's all positive, because the plan is to continue progressing in training and performing better throughout the next few months. I'm excited to see where this team will be in early December."

The Maverick 200 medley relay team of junior Savannah Acker, sophomore Emily Spielman, sophomore Parker Schmieding and junior Averi Larsen set a new pool record as they finished first with a time of 1:45.93.

Larsen would go on to win both the 50 freestyle (23.93) and the 100 freestyle (52.77) events, while Spielman won the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:25.52. Acker claimed a first place finish in the 100 backstroke with a time of 58.58 also.

Senior diver Natalie Freeman turned in a strong performance on the boards as she took first place in both the 1-meter (269.55, provisional qualifying score) and the 3-meter (244.60) diving events. Freshman Ellie DeForest took second place in both diving events also as she notched 235.25 points in the 1-meter event and 229.90 points in the 3-meter event.

Minnesota State continues its season on Saturday, Oct. 10, as it takes part in the St. Cloud Invite in Rochester, Minn., and the Diving Quad hosted by UW-La Crosse in La Crosse, Wis.