Men Take Second For First Time Ever

Wednesday, February 25

Columbia, Mo.

All Day

University of Missouri

Big 12 Championships

Tiger Head Coach Brian Hoffer was named the Men's Coach of the Meet

3/1/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving, Swimming & Diving

March 1, 2009

Women's Recap | Complete Results | Finals Gallery

COLUMBIA, Mo. - For the first time in the history of the Missouri men's swimming and diving program the Tigers took second place at the Big 12 Championships. The men's team, who had never finished higher than third, scored major points in the fourth day of finals to overcome a nine point deficit.

Missouri head coach Brian Hoffer was awarded as the Big 12 Coach of the Meet. As a team, the Missouri men set 40 new top-10 times, broke 16 school records and posted eight NCAA "B" cut times.

"We've had good meets in the past, but I'm not sure anything has ever compared to this," said Hoffer. "This is the accumulation of a lot of hard work by a lot of people. It was fun to see everything pay off."

Missouri entered the day behind Texas A&M by nine points. They hung tight when freshman Jan Konarzewski, senior Jake Hoffmann and senior John Higgins took fifth, seventh and eighth, respectively, in the 200 back. Konarzewski broke the school record with a time of 1:46.11. In the prelims, Hoffmann set the second-fastest mark in school history at 1:46.11. Higgins broke into the record books at sixth in the prelims as well, racing in 1:48.03.

Texas A&M opened up a big lead after the 100 free, going up by 41 points over the Tigers. Missouri, however, fought tough, battling back over the course of the next several events.

Finishes of third, fourth, sixth and seventh in the mile helped the Tigers pull back within 19 going into the 200 breast, the men's best event.

In that event, the Tigers were able to cut the Aggie lead to six. Junior Martin Cernansky posted a school-record breaking, NCAA "B" cut time of 1:57.69 while taking the bronze medal. Senior Ted Harris swam to fifth at 2:01.07, while senior Bryan Difford and freshman Michael Lopresti came in seventh and eighth, respectively.

Then came the 200 fly, where Missouri finally took the lead. Senior Gilad Kaufman broke the school record with a time of 1:47.03, with sophomore Spenser Lauver and senior Eric Smith racing to seventh and eighth.

From there, Missouri never looked back. The men's diving platform finals clinched Missouri's victory, lead by a huge performance by Greg DeStephen, coupled with some help by the Texas Longhorns diving tandem of Drew Livingston and Matt Cooper. The duo finished first and second, respectively, while pushing Texas A&M's Eric Sehn to third overall. Sehn had won 11 consecutive Big 12 titles up until that point.

DeStephen followed in fourth to keep pace with Sehn as DeStephen shattered the Mizzou record by over 62 points, totaling 443.50. Sophomore Dante Jones finished right behind DeStephen at fifth, scoring 339.95. Junior Ryan Meeker came in seventh with 260.75, while senior Jeff Wolfert scored points with his ninth-place finish.

After that, Missouri had plenty of reason to celebrate, as they locked up their first-ever second place finish, while the team scored more points than ever before at 810.5.

Several Tigers will be back in action tomorrow morning as Missouri hosts the Last Chance Meet. Though this marks the last time Mizzou women will have a chance to qualify for the NCAA's, the men will still have another week after this one. The Last Chance Meet will begin at 11 a.m. CT.

Final Men's Team Standings