Matt Ferrarelli finished fourth in the 200 individual medley. His time of 1:47.45 should get him to the NCAA Championships.Matt Ferrarelli finished fourth in the 200 individual medley. His time of 1:47.45 should get him to the NCAA Championships.
Swimming & Diving

Men's Swimmers in 4th Place After Day One of Big 12 Championships

March 1, 2001

AUSTIN, Texas- The Missouri Tigers are in unchartered territory following day one of the Men's Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championships in Austin, Texas. The Tigers, who under Coach BRIAN HOFFER have never finished above sixth place in either the Big 12 or Big Eight Conferences, are in fourth place with 157 points. Mizzou is just 24 points behind the Nebraska Cornhuskers for third place and four points ahead of fifth place Iowa State. Kansas trails the Tigers by 70 points. Texas is dominating the meet with 441 points.

Sophomore MATT FERRARELLI was without a doubt the story of the night for the Tigers. The Retford Knotts, England native finished in fourth place in the 200 individual medley in a time of 1:47.45, a new school record and just off of the NCAA automatic qualifying cut. The automatic cut time is 1:47.16. Ferrarelli's time should be good enough to make him the first Missouri NCAA qualifier since 1995 when ROGER ALVARENGA qualified in the 50 freestyle.

Ferrarelli's best event, the 400 individual medley, is tomorrow and he enters the race ranked 19th in the country.

Several other Tigers contributed to the point total on day one. Sophomore STEPHEN DURLEY got things started with a tremendous late run in the consolation race of the 500 freestyle to finish third in the race and 11th overall. His time was 4:33.09 is just off of Missouri's top five all-time list. DANE PEDERSEN finished 15th in the event for Mizzou in a time of 4:38.80.

In the consolation race of the 200 IM, senior MIKE CERVENKA posted the third fastest time in school history with a time of 1:51.05. Cervenka placed fourth in the race and 12th overall.

Senior captain AARON LO was just off of his career-best time in the 50 freestyle with a time of 20.36 seconds. He placed 13th overall and fifth in the consolation race.

Missouri, who did not finish any higher than sixth place in any relay event last year, posted a fifth place finish in the 200 freestyle relay. The team of Lo, Cervenka, TYLER BELANGER and SHANE WHILDIN put up a time of 1:22.22.

The Tigers finished fourth in the 400 medley relay after Iowa State got disqualified. The team of Ferrarelli, Lo, RADU MICLAUS and Belanger posted the third fastest time in school history with a time of 3:19.26. The disqualification put the Tigers into fourth place.

POINT TOTALS: 1. Texas 441 2. Texas A&M 223 3. Nebraska 171 4. MISSOURI 157 5. Iowa State 153 6. Kansas 80

For full results, go to the University of Texas website at www.texassports.com