Oct. 24, 2001

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MIZZOU WOMEN TRAVEL TO KANSAS:
The Missouri women travel to Lawrence, Kan. on Friday for a 6:00 p.m. dual meet with the Kansas Jayhawks. The Tigers are coming off a huge weekend where they took second place in the Big 12 Relay Meet on Friday and then knocked off of the Texas A&M Aggies in dual meet action on Saturday. Last Friday, Missouri finished 12 points ahead of Kansas in the Big 12 Relay Meet, scoring 77 points to KU's 65.

STATEMENT ISSUED BY MU WOMEN:
The Missouri women have slowly been climbing the ladder in the Big 12 Conference over the last three seasons. The Tigers had a chance to make a statement last weekend at the Big 12 Relay Meet, and then again on Saturday in a dual meet against Texas A&M. The statement was made loud and clear. The Tigers took second place in the Big 12 Relay Meet on Friday in Columbia. The defending Big 12 Champion Texas Longhorns looked as strong as ever, winning the team title with 124 points, and taking first place in all but one event. The one event that UT did not win, Missouri did, as the Tigers went on to take second place in nine of the 18 events. Missouri racked up 77 points, 12 points more than third place Kansas (65) and fourth place Texas A&M (64). Iowa State finished fifth with 46 points. The Tigers' next test took place on Saturday afternoon in a dual meet with Texas A&M. Missouri passed with flying colors, dominating the Aggies by a score of 191.5-108.5. Missouri took first place in 11 of the 16 events.

PREVIEWING MISSOURI/KANSAS:
Neither team will have a hard time getting up for this one. Last year in Columbia, the Missouri women did something that no MU women's swimming and diving team had ever done at Mizzou - beat Kansas. The Tigers knocked off the Jayhawks by a score of 170-130 last year in Columbia. Missouri was led by LESLIE HOH, who scored 27 points on her own by winning the 100 breaststroke, 200 breaststroke, and the 200 individual medley. SARAH LO was a double-winner for the Tigers. Lo claimed victories in the 100 and 200 backstroke. The Tigers will have to deal with Kansas junior BETH SCHRYER in the distance free events. Schryer won both the 500 and 1000 freestyle events last year against the Tigers. Five-time Big 12 Finalist GWEN HALEY will be a factor in the butterfly and individual medley events.

THE LO DOWN:
Sophomore SARAH LO was named Missouri's most valuable swimmer a year ago as a freshman. It didn't take long for Lo long to prove her worth to the team this season. On Saturday, Lo was a standout in Mizzou's victory over Texas A&M. She won three individual events, broke two MU Natatorium records, earned an NCAA consideration cut time and led off a winning a relay. Not a bad day's work. Lo's day began by leading off for the 200 medley relay team, which knocked off the Aggies by under a second to take the early lead in the meet. In the third women's event of the day, the 100 backstroke, the Whitby, Ontario native had everyone's attention. Lo won the event in a time of 56.47 seconds, an NCAA consideration time, a pool record, and the second fastest time in school history. Lo followed up the 100 backstroke with a dominant performance in the 200 backstroke, again breaking the pool record in a time of 2:03.57. She won the event by over two seconds. For an encore, Lo led the Tigers to a 1, 2, 3 sweep of the Aggies in the 200 individual medley, again winning by almost two seconds in a time of 2:07.90.

NOT TO BE DE-NIGH-ED:
Sophomore ANDREA NIGH is now in the spotlight at Missouri after her impressive debut at the Big 12 Championships in Austin, Texas last February. Nigh, who finaled in both the 50 and 100 freestyle events, is using the 2001-02 campaign to build on her outstanding freshman season. She is off to a good start. After breaking meet records in both the 50 and 100 freestyle in the annual Black and Gold Meet, Nigh turned it up another notch this past weekend. Against Texas A&M, the school record holder in the 100 freestyle won both the 50 and 100 free events against the Aggies. Nigh's winning time in the 50 free was 24.30 seconds. She won the 100 free in a time of 52.80.

WELCOME TO THE MAIN EVENT:
Missouri's main event is without question the breaststroke. Four Tiger veterans are capable of winning in the breaststroke on any given day. On Friday afternoon, the team of SARAH LO, MARIONA COSTA, and TIFFANY BOHON won the 150 breaststroke in the Big 12 Relay Meet. Costa and Bohon joined 100 breaststroke school record holder LESLIE HOH in the 300 breaststroke relay to finish in second place. In Saturday's dual meet against Texas A&M, the Tigers dominated the breaststroke events. Costa, a freshman from Barcelona, Spain, won the 100 breaststroke in a time of 1:05.27. The Tigers swept in the 100 breast as Bohon finished second (1:05.87) and Hoh third (1:06.56). Coach BRIAN HOFFER had the luxery of keeping SARAH LO out of the 100 breaststroke and placing her in another event. Lo holds the seocnd fastest time in school history in the 100 breaststroke. Costa coasted in the 200 breaststroke, winning the event by over two seconds. Bohon and Texas A&M's Kelsey Savage touched the wall at the same time, tying for second place (2:23.28) while Hoh finished fourth in a time of 2:25.14.

BANKING ON BROOKS:
Senior sprinter TARA BROOKS has been money in the bank throughout her career in relay events at Mizzou. The Ajax, Ontario native is on two school record holding relay teams (200 freestyle, 800 freestyle), and is on 10 other relay teams that own top five times in school history. Judging from her performance on Saturday against Texas A&M, Brooks is looking to become more than a "relay" swimmer. After swimming the anchor leg of the winning 200 freestyle relay, she stepped things up in her individual events. Brooks finished in second place behind Andrea Nigh in the 50 freestyle by just .06 of a second (24.36). She then gave Nigh a run for her money in the 100 freestyle, again finishing as the runner-up in a time of 53.07 seconds.

WELCOME TO COLLEGE:
This past weekend was an eye-opening experience for several Missouri freshmen swimmers. Two swimmers in particular, BECCA DAWSON and LINDSAY PALBYKIN were introduced to Big 12 competition. Dawson, the Missouri high school state champion, spent her first weekend of collegiate competition battling Texas A&M All-American Clara Ho. After seeing Ho a number of times in the relay meet on Friday, the freshman and the All-American were matched up twice in the dual meet on Saturday. Ho got the better of Dawson in both the 100 and 200 butterfly events, but not by much. A late kick by Dawson in the 200 fly was enough to excite the Missouri crowd as she finished in a time of 2:05.22. Ho won the event in a time of 2:04.91. Dawson again was the runner-up to Ho in the 100 butterfly. Dawson turned in a solid time, 58.34 seconds, but Ho was magnificent, breaking the MU Natatorium record with a time of 57.27 seconds. Palbykin, an Arizona high school champion, found out about her first big-time collegiate experience after her anchor leg of the 200 freestyle relay on Friday at the Big 12 Relay Meet. Palbykin helped the Tigers make a serious run at the Texas Longhorns, located in lane two. The Longhorns won the event by .14 of a second. The individual that Palbykin ran down on that final leg was Texas senior and U.S. Olympian Erin Phenix.

MEN'S TEAM PREPARES FOR BUSY TWO WEEKS IN NOVEMBER
The Missouri men's swimming and diving team will use the next two weeks to train for two consecutive invite meets in November. The Tigers, coming off a third place finish at the Big 12 Relay Meet on Friday and 169.5-118.5 loss to Texas A&M on Saturday, will gear up for the Illinois Invite on Nov. 9-10, followed by the Pittsburgh Invite on Nov. 16-18.

SWEENEY'S DIVING GIVING MU MEN A BOOST
Junior JAMIE SWEENEY is the lone men's scholarship diver, and for now, the healthy men's diver. Sweeney has not let that detour him. The two-time Big 12 finalist represented the Tigers against a number of divers from the other three schools participating in the Big 12 Invite last Friday. In the first relay competition, Sweeney finished in fourth place with a score of 374.55, just three points short of second place Texas. In the second relay, it was all Sweeney. The lone Tiger acted more like David as he slayed the divers from Texas A&M, Southern Illinois and Texas. On Saturday, It was a one-on-one match-up between Texas A&M's Jesse Evan, an NCAA qualifier, and Sweeney representing the Tigers. Evan got the best of Sweeney on the one-meter board, defeating Sweeney by a eight points, 178.20-170.20. It was a different story though on the three-meter board. Sweeney knocked off Evan and Texas A&M, recording 210.80 points, bettering Evan who scored 200.95 points.

FERRARELLI LOOKING FOR EARLY SUCCESS
Big 12 400 individual medley champion MATT FERRARELLI would like nothing more than to qualify for the NCAA Championships again in 2001-02. There is little doubt that will happen, the question is when. Ferrarelli would like to see it happen early. In two weeks, Ferrarelli will set his eyes on the NCAA automatic qualifying mark in his best event, the 400 individual medley. He will get his first chance at the Illinois Invite in two weeks, and then again in three weeks at the Pittsburgh Invite. Early indications are that Ferrarelli has a good shot. He turned in phenominal leg of the 800 medley relay last Friday at the Big 12 Invite. His split of under four minutes is more than three seconds faster than he was at this point last season. Ferrarelli won two of his three individual events on Saturday against Texas A&M. He won the 200 backstroke in a time of 1:50.76 and the 200 IM in a time of 1:53.70.

BOY OL BOYD:
Freshman JOSH BOYD has wasted little time in making an impact in Missouri's distance events. The Greenville, S.C. native won his first career dual meet event, the 1000 freestyle. Not only did he win the event, the defeated Big 12 Conference distance finalist Patrick Dideum in the process. Boyd's time of 9:34.85 was less than a second short of cracking MU's all-time top five list in that event. Boyd finished second in the 500 freestyle to Dideum, posting a time of 4:44.99.

WINNING WITH RADU:
Junior RADU MICLAUS began the second half of his career at Mizzou on the right track on Saturday against Texas A&M. Miclaus, who's goal is to qualify for the NCAA Championships this season, won both the 100 and 200 butterlfy events, as well as the 200 freestyle. Miclaus won the 200 fly in a time of 1:54.14. He turned in an impressive time of 50.52 in the 100 fly, and defeated two Texas A&M NCAA qualifiers - Matt Rose and Riley Janes.

UNIVERSITY AWAITS RESULTS OF STUDENT VOTE
A student vote took place on the University of Missouri campus on Oct. 21-23 regarding expansion and improvements of the Student Recreational Center. Plans for the recreational center include the expansion of fitness and weight room space, new locker rooms, a new air ventilation system, new aerobic and marital arts studios, new sauna and steam rooms and a new climbing wall. Where the vote comes in involves a new pool area. Students voted on a fee increase of $75 per semester beginning in 2004 that would include a new 50m-competition pool with a separate diving well. It would also include a lap pool and a club pool. The other option is a $50 per semester fee increase that would include only a lap and club pool. If the students pass the 50m-competition pool, the Missouri Tigers will have a new home within the next four years.