The University of Missouri men's and women's swim teams concluded their weekend at the UT Invite, hosted by the University of Texas, with the Tiger women finishing seventh as a team, and the men taking ninth in the prestigious meet.

Swimming with a limited squad, Head Coach Brian Hoffer's teams had numerous impressive efforts in Saturday's final day of the meet.  Mizzou had one individual and one relay team establish NCAA qualifying provisional B-cut marks on the women's side, and had at least seven performances on both sides combined that earned spots on MU's alltime top-five list.

"I was really pleased with the entire weekend," said Hoffer.  "We finished up very strong on Saturday, and did a good job all weekend.  We did a great job competing and not backing down from what was a very high level of competition here," he said.

Highlights from Saturday included freshman Lori Halvorson (Tulsa, Okla.) finishing eighth in the women's 200-yard backstroke with a time of 1:59.75 - a performance that ranks as second-best on MU's alltime top-five list, and also rates as a provisional NCAA mark.

The other NCAA provisional mark turned in Saturday came from the Mizzou women's 400 freestyle relay.  The team of Shannon Hogan (Jr. - Northville, Mich.), Halvorson, Laren Cox (Fr. - Phoenix, Ariz.) and Liz Schoborg (Sr. - Cincinnati, Ohio) finished seventh overall with a time of 3:24.85.  That was the third-fastest mark in MU history, and earned the quartet an NCAA provisional qualifying time.

Other top performances on the women's side came from Jill Bastien (So. - St. Louis, Mo.) in the 200 breaststroke, and Liz Schoborg in the 200 butterfly.  Bastien finished second in the C-flight finals (18th overall), in a time of 2:19.55, which ranks third on MU's alltime top-five list.  Schoborg took third in the B-flight finals (11th overall) in 2:02.59.

On the men's side, Kirkwood, Mo., native Bennett Clark (So.) had a big day, twice posting marks in the 100 freestyle that ranked second on MU's alltime top-five.  He first in the open event, as he finished fifth in the B-flight finals (13th overall) in a personal-best time of 44.90.  He then bettered that mark with a split of 44.84 on the first leg of the men's 400 freestyle relay.  The men's team finished the race with a time of 3:02.95, and took 11th overall in the event.  Also swimming on the team were Brad Hubbard (Fr. - Louisville, Ky.), Gilad Kaufman (Fr. - Netania, Israel) and Alex Zasadny (So. - Bonner Springs, Kan.).

In the men's 200 butterfly, Justin Sellers (So. - Valley Center, Kan.) and Lex Howard (So. - East Wenatchee, Wash.) both made the B-flight finals, with Sellers finishing fifth (13th overall - 1:49.67) and Howard taking eighth (16th overall - 1:50.83).  Sellers' time ranked fourth-best on MU's alltime top-five list, while Howard's time was good for fifth alltime at Mizzou.

The Tigers will be off from competition to attend to upcoming final examinations, and both teams will next swim in a training trip in Coral Gables, Fla. on Jan. 4th.  The next dual meet for both squads is set for Jan. 14th at Missouri State in Springfield, Mo.