Feb. 27, 2008
AUSTIN, Texas - After the first day of action at the Big 12 Championships, the Mizzou men's swimming and diving team (11-2, 1-0 Big 12) leads both Texas and Texas A&M with a score of 121 points. In the pool, the men nearly broke a pair of school records, while the divers put on quite a show in the diving well.
"We put ourselves in a good place today," Tiger Head Coach Brian Hoffer said. "Our relays gave very strong efforts and the divers were just phenomenal. We could not have asked for anything more from them. We're certainly looking forward to everything to come in the next few days."
This year's conference meet opened up with the prelims of one-meter diving, and all four Tiger divers qualifying for finals. In the afternoon's prelims, sophomore Greg DeStephen tallied a 315.05 to capture the third spot, while freshman Dante Jones rounded out the top-five with a 287.65. Sophomore Ryan Meeker (257.05) and senior David Boyko (254.80) took seventh and eighth, respectively in preliminary action.
While the divers warmed up for finals, the 200 medley relay quartet of senior Travis Floyd, sophomore Martin Cernansky, junior Gilad Kaufman and freshman Jordan Hawley got things going in the pool. The Tiger squad combined for a time of 1:30.71, good enough for third-place and sixth all-time at Mizzou.
It was then right back over to the diving well for finals on the 1-meter board. The Tigers took three of the top-five spots in the event. DeStephen unleashed for a score 341.35 to capture runner-up honors and the second spot in school history behind former All-American Evan Watters. Jones posted a score of 309.40 to take fourth, with Boyko just behind in fifth with a score of 279.30. Meeker's score of 265.80 put him in eighth.
The evening was brought to a close by the 800 free relay. Junior Matt Dahlke came out of the gates strong with a leadoff split of 1:38.84, just four-tenths of a second off the 200 free school record but still good enough for third in program history. Sophomore Dylan Lynn and junior Brad Hubbard swam the second and third legs, respectively, letting redshirt freshman Cameron Sellers take things over with the squad in third. The Valley Center, Kansas, native swam a strong anchor leg to give the runner-up Aggies a scare, but the quartet's time of 6:36.95 was not enough in the end. It was good enough, however, to qualify as an NCAA "B" cut time and earn the second spot in the Tiger all-time record books.
Thursday's second day of action at Texas' Jamail Swimming Center kicks off with swimming prelims at 10 a.m. Fans can catch live results on mutigers.com, with tape-delayed television coverage being made available on FSN Midwest beginning at 12 p.m.
Thursday's Order of Events:
PRELIMINARIES (10 a.m.)
500 Free
200 IM
50 Free
400 Medley Relay
FINALS (6 p.m.)
500 Free
200 IM
50 Free
400 Medley Relay