Dec. 6, 2008
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COLUMBIA, Mo. - The second day of the inaugural Mizzou Invitational came to a close Saturday night, and with it came more record-breaking performances from the Tiger squads, including two school records, as both teams finished the night in first place of the competition.
The men jumped ahead of Iowa after trailing after the first day, leading the Hawkeyes 628-626. The women extended their lead, improving their score to 867 points.
Missouri's women opened the evening with a record-setting 200 medley relay time. Sophomore Lauren Lavigna, sophomore Morgan McCleery, junior Colleen Gordon and senior Lori Halvorson posted the third-best time ever at Missouri, finishing at 1:43.50. Missouri's "B" relay squad of senior Lauren Cox, freshman Emy DiBenigno, senior Allie Bennett and freshman Lisa Nathanson scored points with their fifth place performance, racing in 1:45.46.
Senior Jill Granger followed the relay by earning one of the three Tiger victories on the evening, dominating the event with a time of 4:18.88. Freshman Kayla Durnil posted a top-10 performance of her own, finishing in second-place with the fourth-best time in Tiger history at 4:23.73. Senior Coralie Baumann finished sixth, swimming in 4:34.65.
Missouri's second record-breaking swim of the night, third of the meet, came with Halvorson's performance in the 200 free. Halvorson, who broke her own record in the 200 IM on Friday, broke the old 200 free record previously held by herself and Gordon with a time of 1:47.58. Three other Tigers rounded out the top-eight, scoring big points for Mizzou. Sophomore Francie Szostak went third at 1:49.92, while Gordon came in fifth with a time of 1:50.57. Freshman Stephanie Rovig took seventh with a time of 1:52.67.
The Tigers set two more top-10 times in the following event, the 100 breast. McCleery, who has climbed the record books this year, moved up to fourth all-time with her 1:03.89 second place performance. Durnil, the event's fourth place finisher, earned her second top-10 time of the evening, swimming at 1:04.73. DiBenigno and senior Erin Yeager took fifth and sixth, finishing the race in 1:05.66 and 1:05.77, respectively.
Cox's performance in the 100 back, a time of 56.67, put her in fifth place in the race and seventh all-time at Missouri.
MU closed the evening in the pool with first and third place finishes in the 800 free relay. Halvorson, Gordon, Szostak and Granger, the current school record-holders in the event, struck gold with a time of 7:22.94, beating out the second place finisher by almost 10 seconds. Rovig, Cox, freshman Leah Cowperthwaite and Lavigna finished third at 7:38.16.
Two Tiger divers finished the night with two more top-10 scores. Freshman Jordan Morcom took third in the 1-meter while also posting the third-best 1-meter score in school history at 283.75 points. Freshman Christina Gailey earned her way onto the top-10 list, finishing in sixth place with a score of 268.70, ninth-best at Mizzou. Senior All-American Kendra Melnychuk led all Tigers with 285.95 points for a runner-up finish.
Another night of records opened with the 200 medley relay, where Mizzou's men set the eighth-best time in school history to get the evening rolling. Mizzou's foursome of freshman Jan Konarzewski, senior Bryan Difford, senior Gilad Kaufman and sophomore Jordan Hawley teamed up for a runner-up performance while finishing at 1:30.93.
Redshirt sophomore Cameron Sellers set one of two Tiger records on the evening with his performance in the 200 free. Sellers, who was already the school record holder, improved his time by .02 as he finished in second with a time of 1:38.16. Senior Matt Dahlke and sophomore Jeff Hendricks finished fifth and sixth, respectively, with Dahlke's 1:39.70 edging out Hendricks' time of 1:39.97.
Following Sellers' record-setting swim, the Tigers posted two top-six finishes in the 100 breast, which included Difford racing to the seventh-fastest time ever at Missouri. Difford came in fourth with a time of 56.45 to put his name into the record books. Junior Martin Cernansky took sixth at 56.90, helping the Tigers push closer to first place.
The 100 back saw two more top-10 times, as Konarzewski and senior Byron Carlisle finished 5-6. Konarzewski's time of 50.26 is currently the eighth-fastest ever at Missouri. Carlisle, who was already in the top-10, improved on his old personal best of 50.83 by finishing the race in 50.54.
The men closed out the session in the pool with one more top-10 time following the second place finish by Mizzou's 800 free relay team. Sellers, Dahlke, senior Ted Harris and Hendricks raced to the third-fastest 800 free relay time in school history, finishing in 6:38.71, almost three seconds better than the third place team.
The record-breaking performances weren't limited to the competition pool, however. Sophomore Dante Jones shined on the 3-meter, posting a new career-high with 360.55 points, totaling the fourth-best score at MU. Junior All-American Greg DeStephen took third with a score of 316.60.
The last day of competition begins with preliminaries at 10 am CT on Sunday, Dec. 7. The finals are set to start at 4 pm CT.
Women - Team Rankings - Through Event 40 1. University of Missouri 867 2. University of Iowa 685 3. Drury University 461 4. Southern Illinois University 253 5. University of Kansas 68 6. University of Arkansas 41Men - Team Rankings - Through Event 40 1. University of Missouri 628 2. University of Iowa 626 3. Missouri State University 472 4. Missouri S&T 336 5. Southern Illinois University 288 6. Drury University 276