University of Missouri
Missouri Men's Swimmers Finish 6th at Big 12 Championships
6/21/1999 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
March 6, 1999
COLUMBIA, Mo.- The Missouri men's swimming and diving team did not perform as well as they would have hoped at the 1999 Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championships, but the Tigers did have plenty of good things to look back on. Mizzou finished in sixth place with 313 total points. The Texas Longhorns took home the title in their home venue with 882.50 points.
Sophomore diver Ryan Day was the story of the meet for the Missouri Tigers. After reaching the finals in both the three-meter and one-meter competitions, Day took to the platform where he finaled and placed fourth on Saturday night. A walk-on one year ago, Day had not had the luxury of practicing every day on the platform since the MU Natatorium does not have a platform diving board.
"What Ryan Day did this weekend was unbelievable," said Head Coach Brian Hoffer.
With the diving efforts of Day and junior Brad Duggan, Mizzou diving coach Pat McCord was tabbed Co-Diving Coach of the Year along with Texas A&M's Kevin Wright.
Also starring for the Tigers was senior Chris Peters. In his final meet as a Missouri Tiger, Peters for the third straight year, reached the finals in both the 100 and 200 backstroke. On Saturday night, Peters placed fourth in the 200 back with a school record time of 1 minute, 48.19 seconds. That time was over a second better than his previous school-best mark. Freshman Andy Cole also put together a solid performance by placing 12th in a time of 1 minute, 50.12 seconds, his best of the season.
"What a career for Chris Peters," said Hoffer. "He has been a catalyst for this team since his freshman year."
The 200 breaststroke, one of the Tigers strongest events, proved to be a disappointment. Sophomore Mike Tucker, who reached the NCAA Championships in the event last year, committed a false start in the prelims, and thus was disqualified from the event. Ryan Ruddy placed 12th for the Tigers in a time of 2 minutes, 3.79 seconds.
"We scored 326 points last year and we scored 313 this year," said Hoffer. "If Tucker doesn't false start, we are right where we were or even better than last year."
Times were very fast in the 100 freestyle where sophomore Aaron Lo could not even reach the consolation race despite a time of 45.32, the fourth fastest time in school history.
