Feb. 16, 2007
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The Missouri women's swimming and diving team outscored Kansas by 33.5 points on Friday to close to within 25.5 points heading into Saturday's final day of the Big 12 Swimming & Diving Championships at the Student Rec Center Natatorium on the Texas A&M campus.
The Tiger women are in fourth place with 268 points. They trail Texas A&M (651), Texas (633) and Kansas (293.5).
The Mizzou men's team got a school-record in the 100 fly from Bennett Clark and had three athletes post the third, fourth and fifth-fastest times in school history in the 400 IM as they continued to put pressure on Texas A&M for second place. Top-ranked Texas leads the competition with 766 points, Texas A&M is second with 556 and MU is third with 491.
"We are definitely racing hard and competing," said Missouri Head Coach Brian Hoffer. "I am pleased that the women came back and started racing this morning. They did a much better job than Thursday."
In the 400 IM, Jill Granger improved on her NCAA Provisional time by breaking the school-record as she touched fifth overall in 4:17.91. Hoffer was encouraged by the fact that even though the time is a provisional one, it was selected for the NCAA Championships a year ago.
"For her to break that record this soon considering we just started focusing her attention on it this year is great," Hoffer said.
Jill Bastien earned six points in the 400 IM with a third-place finish in the "B" final and came back three races later to finish eighth overall in the 100 breast as she added another 11 to the team score. Her IM time of 4:24.08 ranks fourth all-time at MU.
Freshman Martin Cernansky swam the third-fastest 100 breaststroke in school history with a 55.63 time that scored fifth in the event.
Other strong performances were recorded by Greg DeStephen and Ryan Meeker in the 3-meter springboard. DeStephen was second after prelims and finished third while Meeker scored in his first Big 12 finals showing with a seventh-place score. Kendra Melnychuk added 14 points to the charge on KU with a fifth-place finish in the 1-meter diving. No KU diver advanced to the finals.
The meet concludes on Saturday with prelims starting at 10 a.m. and championship finals at 6 p.m. The diving events move to the platform - an area that Mizzou has two strong participants in Kendra Melnychuk and DeStephen.
2007 Big 12 Conference Swimming and Diving Championships Texas A&M Student Recreation Center Natatorium College Station, Texas Friday, February 16, 2007
Men - Team Rankings - Through Event 27: 1. Texas, 766; 2. Texas A&M, 556; 3. Missouri, 491.
Women - Team Rankings - Through Event 28: 1. Texas A&M, 651; 2. Texas, 633; 3. Kansas, 293.5; 4. Missouri, 268; 5. Iowa State, 221; 6. Nebraska, 217.5.