Tigers Rewrite Record Books at Invite

Dec. 5, 2008

COLUMBIA, Mo. - The nationally-ranked Missouri swimming and diving squads completed day one of the inaugural Mizzou Invitational, with both squads rewriting the Mizzou record books. The Tigers set at least one new top-10 time in every swimming event over the course of the evening.

The women will enter day two in first place with 363 points, while the men find themselves in second with 285.

The evening session opened with the 200 freestyle relay. Mizzou's "A" team of senior Allie Bennett, senior Lori Halvorson, freshman Lisa Nathanson and sophomore Francie Szostak scored the third-fastest time at Missouri, finishing the race in third-place with a time of 1:33.35. The "B" team of senior Lauren Cox, junior Kristin Viger, junior Molly Bollen and freshman Stephanie Rovig touched in sixth at 1:36.85.

The Tigers earned a 1-2-3 finish in the next event, the 500 free. Senior Jill Granger led the way with a first-place time of 4:48.01. Coming in second was Szostak, whose time of 4:49.94 is the third-best ever at MU. Junior Colleen Gordon, the school-record holder in the event, took third at 4:50.34. Sophomore Lauren Lavigna, who finished in 4:59.27, and Rovig, touching at 5:03.60, came in seventh and eighth, respectively.

The women scored another victory in the 200 IM, when Halvorson broke her own school record. The Tulsa, Okla., native flirted with the record in the preliminaries, and broke it in the finals, touching at 2:02.55. Her old school record was 2:02.86. On top of the record, Granger and freshman Kayla Durnil each earned their way into Mizzou's top-10 with their performances as well. Granger took third at 2:04.05, while Durnil came in fourth with a time of 2:04.87.

Following the 200 IM, Bennett and Cox each broke their way into the top-10 of the 50 free. Both swimmers finished at 23.70, tying them for the eighth-fastest time in the event. Bennett, swimming in the "A" finals, took seventh overall, while Cox, swimming in the "B" finals, finished 10th overall.

The women closed the evening with a runner-up finish in the 400 medley relay, scoring the third-best 400 medley relay time at Missouri. The foursome of Lavigna, sophomore Morgan McCleery, Gordon and Halvorson touched at 3:45.78. Szostak, senior Erin Yeager, Bollen and Bennett scored points for Mizzou with their sixth-place spot, finishing at 3:52.27.

Freshman Jordan Morcom and senior Kendra Melnychuk competed in the 3-meter dive, finishing in third and fifth, respectively. Morcom earned a score of 295.50, and was edged out for second by just 1.45. Melnychuk finished with a score of 279.75, which was only .25 away from fourth.

Like the women, Missouri's "A" squad of sophomore Jordan Hawley, freshman Jack Dwyer, freshman Scott Martin and senior Bryan Difford finished the race in third after posting the third-best time ever at Missouri, touching at 1:21.53. Also like the women, Missouri's "B" squad, consisting of senior Ted Harris, redshirt sophomore Cameron Sellers, sophomore Jeff Hendricks and senior Matt Dahlke, came in sixth at 1:23.25.

The 500 free followed the relay, and along with that came two new top-10 times. Sellers finished in second-place and improved on his personal best, the second-fastest in Mizzou history, by touching at 4:24.91. Sellers beat out his previous personal best by almost :02. Coming in sixth was Hendricks, whose time of 4:32.28 put him seventh all-time at Missouri.

The men's team earned their first gold of the day when Difford came in first in the 200 IM. Difford, who holds the second-best 200 IM time at MU, improved on that time by .01, touching at 1:48.76. Fellow seniors Jake Hoffmann and Harris came in fifth and eighth, respectively. Hoffmann finished at 1:51.54, while Harris swam in a time of 1:53.59.

The Missouri men scored back-to-back victories after Hawley struck gold in the 50 free. His time of 20.08 beat out his old personal best of 20.17 in the event. Hawley stands at third all-time at Mizzou. Dwyer scored points for the Tigers with his eighth-place finish in a time of 20.87.

The final event of the night came in the form of the 400 medley relay, where the Tigers earned two top-six finishes, including another top-10 time. The squad of freshman Jan Konarzewski, junior Martin Cernansky, senior Gilad Kaufman and Hawley posted the fourth-best 400 medley relay time in school history, finishing at 3:18.82. The relay squad of Hoffmann, Harris, sophomore David Dorak and Hendricks finished at 3:23.45, good for sixth.

In the well, junior Greg DeStephen and sophomore Dante Jones posted another 1-2 on the 1-meter. DeStephen scored a 329.05, just edging out Jones' 325.50. Junior Ryan Meeker finished in seventh, scoring 271.10, his highest total on the 1-meter this season.

Action resumes with day two on Saturday. Preliminaries will begin at 10 am CT, with the finals starting at 6 pm CT. The event is free to the public.

Women - Team Rankings - Through Day One

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University of Missouri	363
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University of Iowa		321
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Drury University		188
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Southern Illinois University	126
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University of Kansas	42
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University of Arkansas	15
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 Men - Team Rankings - Through Day One

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University of Iowa		314
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University of Missouri	285
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Missouri State University	183
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Missouri S&T		161
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Southern Illinois University	122
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Drury University		98
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Schedule

Players Mentioned

Allie Bennett

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