Feb. 26, 2005
College Station, Texas - The University of Missouri men's and women's swimming and diving teams closed out the 2005 Big 12 Conference Championship meet tonight with solid performances. Head Coach Brian Hoffer saw his men's squad place third, with 788 points, while the Tiger women took fifth, with 377 points.
Hoffer's men gave such an impressive performance that he was named Big 12 Conference Men's Coach of the Year. That was the second time he's earned that award, adding to the Big Eight Conference Men's Coach of the Year he won in his first year at Mizzou in 1993.
One Tiger on each team turned in NCAA provisional qualifying marks. Senior Matt North finished 4th in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:00.12, which was a personal best and also ranked 2nd on the all-time MU top-5 performer list. In the same event senior Mariona Costa finished 5th in the women's 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:16.03 that was not only an NCAA provisional mark, but broke her own MU school record. Her previous record was 2:16.94, set in 2002.
In all on the men's side, five performances Saturday night ranked among MU's all-time top-5. In addition to North's showing in the 200 breaststroke, Columbia, Mo., native Peter Willett placed 2nd in the 1,650 freestyle, with a time of 15:41.88 that ranked 3rd on MU's top-5 chart. He was neck and neck with James Hard of Texas A&M heading into the final 50 meters, but Hard had the bigger kick at the end to edge Willett, with a winning time of 15:39.28.
Other Tiger men standouts on the evening included Evan Watters, who finished 3rd in the platform diving competition with a mark of 476.15 (3rd alltime at MU), the 400 freestyle relay team of Bennett Clark, Chris McCrary, Chris Lukas and Garrett McCaffrey, who finished 3rd in a time of 3:00.99 (2nd alltime at MU) and Chris Lukas, who took 6th in the 200 backstroke in 1:47.47 (2nd alltime at MU).
Two other Tiger men turned in top-6 finishes in Saturday's finals, including Brandon Lee in the 1,650 freestyle (4th - 15:53.04) and Justin Sellers in the 200 butterfly (6th - 1:50.98).
On the women's side, Rachel Witt and Lindsay Palbykin had outstanding performances Saturday night. Witt placed 6th in the platform diving competition with a score of 331.85 that ranked 3rd on MU's alltime top-5 performer's list, while Palbykin took 8th in the 100 freestyle in a time of 51.34 seconds that was also 3rd-best alltime at MU.
The women's 400 freestyle relay team of Palbykin, Amanda Morford, Katie Gates and Shannon Hogan closed out their season in fine fashion, with a 4th-place finish in a time of 3:26.84.
"This was a nice showing for our program," said Head Coach Brian Hoffer. "The men were just incredible - it seemed like almost every time we'd finish a race, it was in the top-five in school history. Our women were outstanding as well, and really had some great individual performances. For Mariona (Costa) to have the fastest swim of her life in her last career race, that was a neat moment," he said.
"As we transition into our new facility, I really think we'll look back at this team as one that established a very high level of work ethic and strong racing, and all the little things we talk about," said Hoffer. "This was a real nice wrap up to a successful season. In an individual sport like swimming, you look for your individuals to get faster as the year goes on, and our kids did that, and because of that, our team got better," he said.
Here's a quick glance at the final team standing for both the men's and women's competitions.
For full results, please visit www.aggieathletics.com.
Final Team Rankings Female Team Scores Place School Points 1 University of Texas TEX 965 2 Texas A&M University A&M 783 3 University Of Nebraska NEB 461 4 University of Kansas KAN 454 5 University of Missouri MIZZ 377 6 Iowa State University ISU 337 Total 3,377.00Male Team Scores Place School Points 1 University of Texas TEX 1,050 2 Texas A&M University A&M 842 3 University of Missouri MIZZ 788 Total 2,680.00