Feb. 26, 2009
COLUMBIA, Mo. - Both the men's and women's swimming and diving squads completed the second day of the 2009 Big 12 Championships in third place. The men currently have 241 points, while the women sit at 209.
The Texas men lead with 397, with Texas A&M in second with 265. On the women's side, Texas also leads, posting 307 points. Texas A&M is behind them with 281, while Kansas sits in fourth with 173 team points.
For the Tigers, seven new school records were broken on the day, bringing their weekend total to 12. On top of that, 14 new top-10 times were set as the Tigers continued to rewrite their school record book.
The women set new school records in every swimming event on the day, starting with the 500 free. Senior Jill Granger broke the school record with a time of 4:43.98, while finishing in fifth place in the event. Not only did Granger set the new high mark at Missouri, but three of her teammates set the second, third and fourth-fastest times ever at Mizzou in the same event.
Junior Colleen Gordon raced to a sixth place finish in the finals after she posted a time of 4:45.42 to set the second-best mark in school history. Sophomore Francie Szostak registered the third-best mark ever at Mizzou in the preliminaries as well, touching in 4:48.74. Szostak would later go on to finish in seventh place in the finals. Fellow sophomore Lauren Lavigna came up with the fourth-best time at MU with her performance in the finals, swimming in at 12th place at 4:48.82. All four marks registered as NCAA “B” cut times.
The 200 IM saw two new top-two times, with freshman Kayla Durnil setting her second school record in her first collegiate season. In the preliminaries, Durnil posted a very impressive time of 2:00.98 to set the new school record. Later that night, Durnil raced to seventh place in the championship heat. Senior Lori Halvorson, the previous school record holder in the event, posted the second-best time ever at Missouri with a finals time of 2:01.44, giving her 10th place.
The following event, the 50 free, saw a new school record by another freshman. Lisa Nathanson broke the school record in the championship heat by swimming in 22.74, putting her in sixth place. Senior teammates Lauren Cox and Allie Bennett raced to the wire in their heat, with Cox finishing just .01 ahead of Bennett. Cox's time of 23.43 put in her fifth-place all-time at MU, while Bennett's 23.44 is good for sixth-best ever. The two had been tied for eighth all-time coming into this weekend.
Finally, the Tiger women closed out the evening in the competition pool by posting one more school record, along with another top-10 time. In the 400 medley relay, Lavigna, sophomore Morgan McCleery, Gordon and Halvorson teamed up to post a new school record that beat out the previous best by over three seconds. The foursome raced to a fourth-place finish in a time of 3:40.74. On top of that, the all-senior team of Kirsten David, Erin Yeager, Carly Sullivan and Bennett set the sixth-best time ever at Missouri as they finished their race in 3:46.55.
The women took to the diving well today, and the Tigers saw their top tandem in the finals. Senior Kendra Melnychuk finished in third-place to take the bronze medal, posting a season-high score of 300.60. Freshman Jordan Morcom recovered from an early botched dive and bounced back to finish at 281.35, giving her a sixth-place finish.
The men secured new school records in the 400 medley relay, the 50 free and the 200 IM, while also posting four new top-10 times in the 500 free.
The Tigers got big swims in the 500 free as they posted new top-10 times on four separate occasions. Sophomore Spenser Lauver posted the third-best time ever in the event during the preliminaries with a time of 4:27.27, then went on to finish sixth in the event during the finals session. Senior Matt Dahlke's finals time of 4:28.32 gave him a seventh-place finish while recording the fourth-best time ever. The fifth-fastest time in school history came at the hands of sophomore Jeff Hendricks, who placed 10th with his time of 4:28.49. Senior Brad Hubbard's top-10 time came in the preliminaries, touching in 4:30.52. He would later go on to finish 11th in the finals.
In the 50 free, sophomore Jordan Hawley broke a 16-year-old Missouri record. The Plano, Texas, native earned an impressive fourth-place finish in 19.72, good for an NCAA “B” cut time. Hawley's time breaks the old school mark of 19.93, set by Roger Alvarenga all the way back in 1995. Senior Gilad Kaufman came in ninth in the race after touching in 20.12, the fourth-fastest time at Missouri.
Senior Bryan Difford, who previously held the second-best 200 IM time ever at Missouri, posted a new school record in the morning preliminaries. His record-breaking time of 1:47.17 put him into the finals, where he would go on to finish eighth. Freshman Scott Martin put his name into the record books as well, as he came in ninth with the third-best time at MU of 1:48.67.
The men shut the door on day two with the 400 medley relay as two Tiger teams posted a new school record and the second-fastest time in program history to finish off the evening. Freshman Jan Konarzewski, junior Martin Cernansky, Kaufman and Hawley teamed up to set their second record in as many days. After breaking the school record in the 200 medley relay on night one, the team did the same thing on night two, breaking the old school record by nearly 2.5 seconds on their way to a time of 3:15.33. In the second heat, seniors Byron Carlisle, Ted Harris, Eric Smith and Difford posted a time of 3:17.00 for the second-best time in Missouri history.
The 13th annual Big 12 Championship continues Friday morning at 10 a.m. CT. Stay tuned to mutigers.com for updates.
Women - Team Rankings - Through Event 14 1. The University of Texas 307 2. Texas A&M University 281 3. University of Missouri 209 4. University of Kansas 173 5. Iowa State University 112 6. University Of Nebraska-Lincoln 108Men - Team Rankings - Through Event 14 1. The University of Texas 397 2. Texas A&M University 265 3. University of Missouri 241
Friday's Schedule
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10:00 a.m. CT: 200 Freestyle Relay, 400 IM, 100 Butterfly, 200 Freestyle, 100 Breaststroke, 100 Backstroke preliminaries
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10:30 a.m. CT: Men's 3M Diving preliminaries
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1:00 p.m. CT: Women's 3M Diving preliminaries
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5:00 p.m. CT: Men's 3M Diving finals
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6:00 p.m. CT: 200 Freestyle Relay, 400 IM, 100 Butterfly, 200 Freestyle, 100 Breaststroke, 100 Backstroke, Women's 3M Diving finals