Feb. 24, 2005
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The Missouri men's swimming and diving team finished the second night of competition at the Big 12 Championships in third place, edging their way into the Mizzou record books along the way.
The Tiger divers opened the night in grand fashion in the 1-meter dive, taking three of the top four spots to put Mizzou in first place at the time. Junior Evan Watters turned in a score of 323.95, good for second place and the third highest total in school history, followed by junior Aaron Wionzek (299.80) and freshman Jeff Wolfert (297.60) at third and fourth, respectively.
"Those guys were pretty unbelievable," Missouri head coach Brian Hoffer said. "We were surrounding a guy from A&M, and he beat us, but we dove great. I was very happy with our divers."
The men's swimmers also turned in a litany of top-10 performances on Thursday night. Senior Matt North took seventh in the 200 IM with a time of 1:51.26, but his morning time of 1:51.05 ranks as the third fastest in Tiger history. North was followed by junior David Darmitzel, who took eighth with a time of 1:53.23.
Chris McCrary notched an eight-place finish in the 50 free, in a fifth-fastest all-time mark of 20.49, and teammate Peter Willett, a Columbia native, clocked in at 4:35.26 to earn a seventh-place finish in the 500 free. The team of junior Garrett McCaffrey, North, McCrary and freshman Bennett Clark touched in third in the 400 medley relay to round out the Mizzou top-10 finishes on the evening.
Juniors Chris Lukas and Dan Buhr, sophomore Nate Zabel and Clark all placed in the top-15 in the 50 free.
"I was very pleased with our performance in the pool tonight," Hoffer said. "It was solid. The relay was good, and the men just had a solid day overall. There were a lot of good swims."
The Mizzou women held pat, in fifth place, on the second night of competition at the conference meet, not without getting into the record books themselves.
Sophomore Shannon Hogan led the team in the individual events, earning a sixth-place finish in the 50 free with a time 23.59. That mark ranks as the fifth fastest in the history of the program.
"That was a pretty big swim," Hoffer said. " She did a good job of handling a lot of pressure. There was a lot of good competition in that race."
Not to be outdone, the squad of senior Amanda Morford, senior Mariona Costa, junior Liz Schoborg and senior Lindsay Palbykin took second in the 400 medley relay in a school-record time of 3:46.52.
"The women couldn't get it going in the morning, but they came back with some great swims at night," Hoffer said. "A school record is a great way to gain some momentum for tomorrow, which is what we'll need to have if we're going to catch some of the other schools."
Senior Anna Massey and junior Nicky Frazier placed ninth and tenth, respectively, in the 3-meter dive.
The men have accumulated 131 points thus far in the meet, and trail No. 7 Texas by 82 points heading into the last half of the competition. On the women's side, No. 4 Texas has 300 points, and Mizzou, who has 131, trails by 169 points.