Feb. 13, 2007

The Missouri men's swimming and diving team heads to College Station for the 11th edition of the Big 12 Championships looking to dislodge the monotony that has been the last five years of the league's marquee event.

Following the 2000-01 academic year the men's swimming side of the conference was cut in half when Iowa State, Kansas and Nebraska dropped the sport. That left Texas, Texas A&M and Missouri as the only men's programs.

And the championships have been mostly a formality as each of the last five years have seen Texas continue its dominance while the Aggies have outscored the Tigers each year for the second spot.

But in the last two years Mizzou has closed the gap between second and third to 54 points in 2005 and 119 a year ago in Columbia. But if you ask MU Head Coach Brian Hoffer about his team's chances this week in the Aggies' home pool, he will tell you that it may not be as much of a foregone conclusion as some might think.

"We're trying to swim fast and if you look at us an A&M, it comes down to who will swim faster," Hoffer said. "They have had our number at times and we haven't had a chance to find a way to take care of business at the conference meet. It should be a nice match-up."

In the first dual meet of the year back in October, the Aggies narrowly edged the Tigers by four points, so the potential for change is there.

One of Mizzou's best swimmers to lead that charge is junior Bennett Clark