Dec. 6, 1999

Tigers off 'Til January

The men's and women's swimming and diving teams are on hiatus from competition until the start of the new year. With final exams looming, the Tigers will be concentrating on their school work and training from the next month. Once finals have concluded, MU will travel to St. Louis to train until December 23rd before heading home for the holiday season.

MU Achieving Greatness

The Missouri men's team finished with a very respectable 1,056 points, but could bot overtake the 25th ranked Indiana Hoosiers for the title. The Hoosiers scored 1,190 points, with 162 of those points coming in the diving events where IU had six divers compete while the MU only had two. The Tigers did outscore Southern Illinois who finished with 769 points.

"A lot of young guys really stepped up this weekend for us, "head coach Brian Hoffer said. "We felt we had a chance to win the meet coming in, but our lack of depth was evident with a much improved Indiana team. We raced a great top-25 team to the very end and these guys have a lot to be proud of."

Fantastic Ferrarelli

Freshman sensation Matt Ferrarelli is already making a name for himself at Missouri. The young Tigers has already swam his way into the MU history books in three events and the season is only three months old. Thus far in his brief Mizzou career, Ferrarelli is ranked as the second best 200 and 400 individual medley swimmer in MU history as well as the second-best 200 backstroker ever in the history of the program.

The English native place third in the 200 IM while following that up with a win in the 400 IM the next day. With the win, he notched his fourth Tiger victory of the season. Ferrarelli also placed 4th in the 200 backstroke on the final day of competition.

Looking to Sydney 2000

Three Missouri swimmers qualified for the Canadian Olympic Trials while in Bloomington over the weekend. The trials will be in Montreal, Canada the first week in June. It is the first time that all three of these athletes have clocked Canadian Olympic Trial standards.

Junior Aaron Lo qualified in the 50 and 100 free as well as the 100 breast. Senior Rikki Janes swam to qualifying standards in the 100 and 200 back and the 100 fly. Sophomore Tara Brooks will be competing in the 50 free at the trials.

Freshman Leslie Hoh has qualified for the United States Olympic Trials which are held in Indianapolis, Ind at the beginning of August. She me the U.S. qualifying standards at the Junior National East Championships last August and will competing in the 200 and 400 individual medleys.

How Lo Can You Go

Aaron Lo continued to impress in the final meet of the semester. Lo led the Tigers 200 freestyle relay off with a Canadian Olympic Trials qualifying standard and followed it up with a win in the individual 50 free later in the evening. On the third day of competition, Lo nearly won the 100 free as well, coming off the third wall, Lo was made a charge for the wall, but was unable to close the gap to finish second to Indiana's Don Gold. The junior also finished third in the 100 breast.

Cervenka Wins

Middle distance specialist, Mike Cervenka put on an outstanding display in Indiana this weekend. Cervenka started the meet off with an individual victory in the 400-meter freestyle. In the preliminary session, the junior swam the second best time of his career in the 500-yard freestyle. Cervenka was the runner-up in the 200-meter freestyle following another outstanding morning swim in the preliminary session. He also finished in the top-eight in the 100 free (8th), 100 breast 98th), 200 breast (6th) and 200 IM (8th).

Youth Movement

The Tiger youth movement continues as Tiger newbie Radu Miclaus swept the fly events in Bloomingotn. Miclaus won both the 100 and 200 fly while also placing 11th in the 200 IM. In the 100 fly, the newcomers, goggles fell down off his eyes. He fixed them off the dive and still was able to claim the victory. Micluas led the 200 fly on Sunday from wire to wire demonstrating his strength in the event.

A First For Whildin

Fly specialist, Shane Whildin, achieved a career milestone in the 100 fly over the weekend. The sophomore broke the 50 second barrier in the event for the first time in his swimming career. His time of 49.97 gets him closer to putting his name on the MU All-Time Top-5 list.

The Best of the Best

Seven University of Missouri swimmers recorded 16 new personal best times in the yards portion of the meet over the weekend at the Indiana Invite. All the swimmers recorded best times in the finals session since many of the Black and Gold athletes have never competed in a short course meters competition prior to the weekend. Listed below are the athletes and the events they achieved new life time best performances.

Jon Baumgart 	50 Free (21.76),
 100 Free (47.71)
 200 Free (1:45.39)
Matt Ferrarelli	200 IM (1:52.22),
	 400 IM (4:00.19)
Dan Knudson 	200 IM (2:01.71)
	 100 Fly (55.43),
Radu Miclaus 	200 IM (1:55.53)
	 100 Fly (50.15)
	 200 Fly (1:51.48) 
Brent Pitzer 	200 Free (1:49.20)
Kyle Sanders 	200 IM (2:03.95)
	 400 IM (4:25.80
 200 Fly (2:00.65)
Shane Whildin 	100 Fly (49.97)