Feb. 24, 2006
COLUMBIA, Mo. - The third day of the 2006 Big 12 Swimming & Diving Championships ended with a bang for the Mizzou women, as the team of junior Shannon Hogan, senior co-captain Liz Schoborg, sophomore Katie Gates and freshman Lori Halvorson capped off the evening with a school-record 1:32.93 in the 200 free relay. The Tiger women are currently fourth with 276 points, while their male counterparts stand in third with 469 points.
Schoborg also set an individual school record in the evening session when she lowered her own mark in the 100 fly to 54.75 to finish sixth, as did Halvorson when she bettered her record in the 200 free to 1:48.83 en route to a fourth-place showing.
"We had some big-time swims that highlighted a great day for us," Mizzou head coach Brian Hoffer said. "We really had good energy today, and that's something we always want from our team. That last relay was fun to watch and gives us momentum heading into the final sessions."
A host of other Mizzou women posted all-time school top-fives performances in their home pool on Friday. Freshman Kendra Melnychuk, competing in her first conference championship final, registered a score of 296.95 on the 3-meter board to claim third in the event and fifth in school history.
Freshman Jill Granger also added her name to the all-time Mizzou top-five once more, finishing the 400 IM in a ninth-place time of 4:23.84 that puts her at second place in school history. Hogan secured the fourth spot in school history in the 100 back during the evening session, going 56.47 to finish 11th after entering the all-time top-five with a 56.94 in prelims. Sophomore Jill Bastien placed eighth in the 100 breast in the evening (1:04.15) and her prelim swim of 1:03.97 bumped her into the fourth slot in the Mizzou all-time top-five.
"Jill Granger's swim in the 400 IM in finals really sparked our team," Hoffer said. "We've really started stringing some good swims together and we're coming on strong. People like Shannon Hogan, Lori Halvorson and Jill Granger bring great energy into the pool."
The Tiger men were also able to string some good swims together on Friday, especially in the 100 back. Senior Chris Lukas posted a 48.60 in prelims to move up to second all-time and classmate Garrett McCaffrey slid into the fourth spot on the list with a 49.89 in the morning swim. The duo would finish sixth and seventh in the event, respectively.
"We were really solid today from top to bottom," Hoffer said. "We hardly ever have multiple guys go sub-50 seconds in the same race in the 100 back or 100 fly, but that happened for us in both events today. That's a sign of things to come for us, both in this meet and in the future."
Three men - sophomores Lex Howard (49.46) and Alex Zasadny (49.55) and McCaffrey (49.68) - went under 50 seconds for the Tigers in the finals of the 100 fly. Howard placed sixth, Zasadny seventh and McCaffrey eighth in the event.
Senior diver Evan Watters picked up his second top-three finish of the meet, placing third on the 1-meter board with a score of 333.75.
Sophomore Bennett Clark earned a seventh-place finish in the 200 free (1:39.89), while senior Dan Buhr (1:40.55), freshman Brad Hubbard (1:40.66), freshman Gilad Kaufman (1:40.97) and freshman Jake Hoffmann (1:41.29) took the 11th through 14th spots in the order.
"We put up some really good times in the 200 free today - a larger amount of good times than we have in the past," Hoffer said. "Our depth is really beginning to show and it's helping us out as the meet progresses."
The Mizzou women, currently in fourth place, are just 34 points behind Kansas for the third spot, while the men are 88.5 points in back of Texas A&M for the second-place slot.
Prelims start at 10 a.m. on Saturday at the Mizzou Aquatics Center. For meet information, please visit www.mutigers.com.