November 20, 1998
COLUMBIA, Mo- The Missouri swimming and diving teams remained on a roll in the pool on Friday at the Indiana Invite. After day one of competition, the MU women are in first place, just eight points ahead of the host school, Indiana. The Missouri men find themselves in third place and just 2.5 points behind second place Pittsburgh. South Carolina leads the men's competition.
The 500 freestyle once again proved to be the catalyst event for the MU women. Freshmen Katie Fields, after breaking her own school record in the prelims in the morning, came back at night and broke the record again (4 minutes, 55.69 seconds) en route to a second place finish. Fellow frosh Molly Vetter placed fourth with the school's second fastest time, 5 minutes, 19 seconds. Junior Cristina Souza also placed for the Tigers finishing seventh.
The Missouri women also had three top eight finishers in the 200 individual medley. Tawney Larm and Kara Bramer placed fourth and fifth respectively and Rikki Janes placed eighth. In the morning, Bramer swam the second fastest time in school history, 2 minutes, 6 seconds.
Missouri received fourth and seventh place swims from Jeanna Willi and Tara Brooks in the 50 freestyle and placed second in 200 freestyle relay and 400 medley relay.
The men got a push early win sophomore Mike Cervenka popped the school's fourth fastest time in the 500 freestyle, 4 minutes, 32.90 seconds. He placed seventh in the event. Sophomore Aaron Lo continued to impress in the 50 freestyle after a breaking his own personal best, 20.60 seconds, for the second time in two weeks. Lo placed third in the finals. Senior Dave Kinsella stepped up for the Tigers with a career-best swim, 20.90 seconds, to place fifth.
Junior Ryan Ruddy finished seventh in the 200 individual medley. The Tiger relays held their own as well as the 200 freestyle team placed second while the 400 medley team finished in third place.
Action continues tomorrow morning with the prelims and with the finals taking place at 6:00 p.m. tomorrow night.