Feb. 26, 2007

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Missouri swimmers Bennett Clark and Martin Cernansky posted record times at the Ohio State Last Ditch Meet on Saturday at the Bill and Mae McCorckle Aquatic Pavilion.

Clark swam the second-fastest 50 free in school history with a 19.94, just one-hundredth of a second off Roger Alvarenga's 1995 MU record of 19.93. In the 100 free, he bettered his own school record as he touched in 43.58, nearly a half-second faster than his time at the Big 12 Championships a week earlier.

"We took a few athletes out there just to see if we could go a little faster," MU Head Coach Brian Hoffer said. "Bennett's 100 time is a very strong consideration time and it went last year but there's no telling if it will get picked up this year."

Both of Clark's times are within three-tenths of a second of the NCAA Automatic qualifying time.

Approximately 10 minutes after Clark's 100 swim, Cernansky broke the school record in the 200 breaststroke with an NCAA "B" Cut time of 1:59.17 - nearly a second faster than his Big 12s time of 2:00.07.

Both Tigers, along with seven other athletes in 14 total events will find out on Thursday, March 1 for the women and Thursday, March 8 for the men, if their times will be accepted into the NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships.

MU will send four divers to Austin, Texas, for the NCAA Zone D Diving Championships this Friday-Sunday in hopes of qualifying for the NCAA Championships.