The University of Missouri swimming and diving team is getting down to business. No more exhibitions, this one is for real! The Mizzou teams will take to the pool this Friday evening (October 29) at 6:00 p.m. against Big 12 foe Iowa State in Ames, Iowa. MU has competed in its annual preseason Black and Gold dual meet as well as competing against the rest of the conference teams last Friday (Oct. 22) at the Big 12 meet, also in Ames, Iowa.
During head coach Brian Hoffer's career, Missouri has had a great deal of success on the women's side against Iowa State while the men have struggled in the past. Under Hoffer's direction, the women are 6-1 against the Cyclones with their lone loss coming during the 1994-95 campaign.
Hoffer is excited to get the dual season underway to see what Mizzou can do in the pool. The meet will feature eight new faces to the Tiger roster as well as many veterans who have been great competitors prior to the 1999-2000 season.
"We are ready to race in a dual meet," Hoffer said. "We will be swimming the 400 relays, the 200 individual medley, 1000 free and the 200s of all the strokes so I am excited to see what we can do. This is going to be a fun and exciting meet for us. The team is ready to compete in a dual meet."
LAST TIME OUT
This year's meeting between the two teams marks the third straight year the Tigers and Cyclones have met head-to-head to open their seasons. At the 1998 match-up, Halloween proved to be the coming-out party for the MU as the freshman led the Tigers to a 139-98 victory over ISU.
The story of the day was written by Molly Vetter, who claimed the 200 freestyle victory in a pool-record time of 1 minute, 53.22 seconds. Vetter later came back to finish second in the 500 freestyle in a time of 5 minutes, 3.88 seconds.
Vetter was not the only Tiger to set the pool on fire against the Cyclones. Junior Kim Lambert and sophomore Tara Brooks finished 1-2 in the 50 freestyle. Brooks also led a Tiger sweep of the 100 freestyle. The other Missouri victories came in the 200 individual medley by junior Kara Bramer, senior Cristina Souza claimed victory in the 200 butterfly while fellow senior Rikki Janes was victorious in the 200 backstroke.
TIGERS EYE SECOND VICTORY OVER IOWA STATE
At the Big 12 Relay meet last Friday (Oct. 22), the Missouri women placed 4th with a team score of 67 points. Iowa State finished 5th with 36 points. This meet was unlike any other meet the Tigers will swim during the remainder of the 1999-2000 season. Every event that the athletes competed in were relays. There were no individual events swam.
The highlight of the meet for MU was the 150-yard and 300-yard breaststroke relay wins. There were also several other relays that finished in the top-three. Brian Hoffer was pleased with the team's overall performance.
"We got off to a slow start," Hoffer said. After the break we came back with a much better level of intensity and had much better swims. I was excited for the breaststroke wins since that has been our weakness in the past. With Texas at the meet, that says a lot for us and the future of our breaststrokers. Also for the freshmen to perform like they did in their first Big 12 meet, especially Chrissy Frieh and Ellen Cross."