Feb. 15, 2007
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COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- The Missouri men's swimming and diving team broke two more school record on the second day of the Big 12 Swimming & Diving Championships at the Student Rec Center Natatorium on the Texas A&M campus and sit just 31 points behind the Aggies.
"The guys are really encouraged by that (margin)," said Missouri Head Coach Brian Hoffer. "This is the closest we have been to A&M at this point."
After breaking the school record in the preliminaries of the 500 free earlier in the day, freshman Dylan Lynn went a step further and re-broke his record by nearly four seconds, finishing fourth in 4:24.78. All told, his best time is an NCAA Provisional Qualifying time and 4.99 seconds faster than the mark which had stood for the last five years.
"Dylan was unbelievable today," Hoffer said. "He stepped up and was in a great heat with three very good Texas swimmers and to go under 4:25 was huge. For him to have an eight-second improvement from when he arrived on campus shows the potential he has."
In the one-meter springboard competition, freshman Greg DeStephen move up from his fifth place prelims spot to finish third with a personal-best score of 312.65.
"Greg was going against some really good divers," Hoffer said. "For him to handle that kind of pressure as a freshman was really encouraging. And Ryan Meek competed really well for someone who has been injured all year."
Meeker moved up two spots from the prelims to finish fifth with 280.50 points.
Junior Bennett Clark claimed a fifth-place finish in the 50 free up from his seventh-place showing a year ago. He was in a dead heat with the other top four swimmers but missed his turn and had to settle for fifth.
Clark came back in the next race and anchored the 400 medley relay team to its second school-record in since the first weekend of December. Like the Tigers' 800 free relay group that set the school-record on Wednesday, Thursday grouping of Travis Floyd, Martin Cernansky, Alex Zasadny and Clark are all freshmen and juniors.
Racing resumes on Friday morning with prelims starting at 10 a.m. and championship finals at 6 p.m.
2007 Big 12 Conference Swimming and Diving Championships
Texas A&M Student Recreation Center Natatorium
College Station, Texas
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Men's Team Standings (through event 13) -- 1, Texas, 362 points. 2, Texas A&M, 277. 3, Missouri, 246
Women's Team Standings (through event 14) -- 1, Texas A&M, 316. 2, Texas, 288. 3, Kansas, 180. 4, Iowa State, 135. 5, Missouri, 131. 6, Nebraska, 114.