Feb. 27, 2009
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COLUMBIA, Mo. - The Missouri men's swimming and diving team closed day three within striking distance of the second-place Texas A&M Aggies. Missouri entered the day down 24 points, and closed Friday's finals session down just nine. Missouri has never finished higher than third at the Big 12's.
“Coming into today, our goal was to get that deficit down into the teens,” said Missouri Head Coach Brian Hoffer. “If we did that, we felt really good about our chances to take over second place tomorrow. Now that we're within nine, we feel even better.”
Keeping with the theme by both Mizzou squads this weekend, the Tiger men were able to close the gap by posting numerous record-setting and top-10 times. On the day Missouri broke five school records and set a total of 18 new top-10 times.
The men's finals session started in the diving well, where junior Greg DeStephen shattered his old personal best and set a new school record in the 3-meter. Overall, DeStephen finished in fourth place after posting a score of 407.55, becoming the first Missouri diver ever to break the 400 point total in the current six-dive set-up. Sophomore Dante Jones broke his personal best and improved on his fourth-best score in Missouri history in the preliminary round, scoring a 367.85. He would go on to finish in sixth.
Kicking off the finals in the pool for the men was the 200 free relay, with both “A” and “B” squads setting new top-10 times. The “A” squad of sophomore Jordan Hawley, freshman Scott Martin, and seniors Bryan Difford and Jake Hoffmann raced to a third-place finish with a record-breaking time of 1:20.17. The “B” team, consisting of senior Gilad Kaufman, freshman Jack Dwyer, sophomore David Dorak and junior Matt Burns beat out Texas' “B” squad with a time of 1:21.30, the fourth-best at Missouri.
The 400 IM proved to be a big event for the Tigers on their quest to track down Texas A&M. Junior Martin Cernansky set the second-best time in school history at 3:55.96 as he tied for the bronze medal with Aggie Ryan Loney. As Loney was the only Texas A&M swimmer in the event, Mizzou had the opportunity to score big points. Hoffmann, freshman John Higgins and senior Ted Harris finished 5-6-7, giving the Tigers 39 points from those three as they inched closer to the Aggies.
Kaufman gave the Tigers a big boost with a sixth-place showing and record-breaking performance in the 100 fly, racing in the finals to a new school-best 48.01. Scott Martin and senior Eric Smith each posted top-10 times in the preliminary session, with Martin racing in 48.49 and Smith touching at 48.55. Martin would later swim in the finals and finish in eighth, while Smith would place 11th.
Although the Tigers didn't have anyone in the “A” finals of the 200 free and the Texas A&M Aggies had the top-seeded swimmer in the event, Missouri was still able to rack up a +8 point differential between the two teams in the event as they continued to battle the Aggies.
Senior Matt Dahlke set the new best time in the 200 free during the morning session, finishing in 1:38.01. He'd later post a time of 1:38.09 in the finals as he finished ninth. Sophomore Jeff Hendricks' finals time of 1:38.51 placed him right behind Dahlke at 10th, and put him at fourth-best in Mizzou history. Senior Brad Hubbard posted the seventh-fastest time ever at Mizzou during the preliminaries, swimming his run in 1:39.30. Redshirt sophomore Cameron Sellers placed 13th to score points for Missouri.
Four new top-10 times were posted in the 100 breast, highlighted by Martin Cernansky's record-breaking time of 54.38, which earned him a fourth-place finish. Ted Harris and Bryan Difford finished the finals at seventh and eighth, respectively. Harris' time of 55.42 is the fourth-fastest at Mizzou, while Difford swam the sixth-best time of 55.74 during the preliminaries. Scott Martin added the sixth-fastest time in the prelims, touching in 55.67. He did not compete in the finals.
Texas A&M was able to gather big points in both the 100 breast, and the last evening of the night, the 100 back, as they pulled back in front of the Tigers to close the third day.
Jake Hoffmann lead the way for Mizzou in the 100 back, finishing in fifth place. During the morning session, he posted the second-best time ever, racing in 49.08. Senior Byron Carlisle climbed his way up the list to third overall with a very impressive finals performance of 49.44. Freshman Jan Konarzewski, who finished in sixth, swam to the seventh-best time ever during the morning, touching at 49.71. John Higgins finished in eighth-place for the Tigers.
Missouri will look to overtake the Aggies for good on Saturday as the 2009 Big 12 Championships comes to a close. Stay tuned to mutigers.com for more information.
Men - Team Rankings - Through Event 28 1. The University of Texas 765 2. Texas A&M University 534.5 3. University of Missouri 525.5
SATURDAY SCHEDULE
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10:00 a.m. CT: 200 Backstroke, 100 Freestyle, 200 Breaststroke, 200 Butterfly, 400 Freestyle Relay preliminaries
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12:30 p.m. CT: Women's Platform Diving preliminaries
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3:00 p.m. CT: Men's Platform Diving preliminaries
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5:00 p.m. CT: Women's Platform Diving finals
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6:00 p.m. CT: 200 Backstroke, 100 Freestyle, 1650 Freestyle, 200 Breaststroke, 200 Butterfly, Men's Platform Diving, 400 Freestyle Relay finals