COLUMBIA, Mo. – At the end of the first day of the Missouri Invitational, the Fighting Illini Swimming and Diving team finds itself behind only Missouri in points.

"Overall it was a good day for us," head coach Sue Novitsky said. "We did a solid job of competing in the morning to get finals opportunities at night. I think that we were a little tight at times and need to keep working on relaxing to stay in control of what we can control. We have a young team and they are feeling things out and getting better with each chance. I believe that we can come in tomorrow and put together a strong prelim session in the pool and on the boards."

Sitting at the top with 491 points, Missouri leads all teams at the meet. Illinois is in second with 225 points, followed by Wyoming (206), Drury (169) and UNLV (96). LSU, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Iowa State, North Dakota State, Northern Colorado, SMU and Texas A&M round out the field, competing in diving events only.

Senior Samantha Stratford set a new school record in the 200 IM, with an NCAA B Standard time of 1:58.95 in the prelims, and then followed it up with the fifth-best time in program history in the finals at 2:00.12, finishing in sixth.

The 400 medley relay team of Jamie Kolar, Stratford, Megan Vuong and Audrey Rodawig turned in the eighth-best time in Illinois' history, clocking a 3:44.27.

Overall, 13 new lifetime bests were set for the Illini on Thursday.

Competition will resume Friday morning with prelims at 10 a.m. and finals at 6 p.m., and continue through Saturday.