Nov. 3, 2007
COLUMBIA, Mo. - The Missouri men's swimming and diving team (4-1, 1-0 Big 12) charged hard Saturday and defeated in-state rival Missouri State by a score of 97-51. The Tigers claimed several swimming events in addition to taking the top three spots on the 1-meter board in the win.
"I think we did a good job using our depth today," said Tiger Head Coach Brian Hoffer. "Missouri State is a quick team, but we were able to match up well against them and swim well throughout to get the win."
Highlighting Saturday's dual was the Tigers' efforts in the diving well. Freshman and Columbia native Dante Jones dove to a score of 625.80 took top honors in the 1-meter diving competition, which featured three Tigers atop the leaderboard. Sophomore Greg DeStephen earned second-place honors in the event with a score of 610.35 while classmate Ryan Meeker took third (576.10).
Joining Jones in the winner's circle was junior Gilad Kaufman. The Israeli raced to victory in the 100 IM in a time of 52.62 to edge classmate Matt Dahlke, who clocked in at 52.81. Two other Tigers rounded out the top-five. Sophomore Bobby Sundvold took fourth in a time of 53.16 with junior Bryan Difford claiming the fifth spot (53.55).
The Tigers proved who was captain of the ship in the following 200 back, which featured Mizzou's team captains in the top-three spots. Senior co-captain Travis Floyd earned his second win of the weekend after posting a winning time of 1:50.98. Junior Jake Hoffmann clocked in second in a time of 1:52.06 with senior Joe Wilson touching in at 1:53.42 to round out the top-three.
Sophomore Martin Cernansky extended the Tigers' winning steak on the night to three with his first-place finish in the 200 breast (2:03.65). The Austrian's win marked his third of the weekend. Junior Ted Harris tallied his second top-three showing of the weekend with a third-place finish in the event (2:09.24).
The Tigers' trend of top-three's continued into the evening's closing race, the 800 free relay. The quartet of Dahlke, redshirt freshman Cameron Sellers, Floyd and Harris combined to lead a Mizzou 1-2-3 finish in a time of 6:51.54.
The men look for to complete their second consecutive Mizzou Dual Challenge sweep Sunday when they take on a tough Virginia Tech squad at 9 a.m. in the Mizzou Aquatics Center.