Jan. 30, 2010
SOUTH BEND, Ind. - With another strong performance in two sessions Saturday, the Missouri men's swimming and diving team defeated Notre Dame and Denver in the 2010 Shamrock Invite, falling only to the Iowa Hawkeyes by a single point.
"We had a lot of our young guys step up today," Tiger coach Brian Hoffer said. "Going back and forth with a team like Iowa and the rest of the teams in the meet will give us a lot of confidence going into the conference championships."
The Tigers largest margin of defeat came against Denver, beating the Pioneers 235-134, then beating the host Irish 197-173, falling only to Iowa 184.50-183.50.
Jan Konarzewski, this week's conference swimmer of the week, won his first race of the weekend, claiming the 100 back title in 49.36 seconds. Ryan Sellers also finished high in the race, coming in third in 50.55 seconds.
Konarzewski then won his second race later in the day in the 200 back, touching the pad in 1:48.28. John Higgins and Ryan Sellers came in third and fourth in the race, with Higgins clocking in at 1:49.85 and Sellers in 1:50.37.
Dante Jones won his second individual title of the year on Saturday, winning the 1-meter diving title with 339.35 points, giving the Tigers the sweep in both events on the weekend, as Greg DeStephen won the 3-meter event Friday.
The men's relay teams continued to shine on Saturday, first in the 200 medley where the team of Konarzewski, Lopresti, Melin and Hawley finished first in 1:30.72, besting Iowa to keep their dual close.
Yaniv Shnaider earned another second place finish on the weekend, touching the pad in the 400 IM in 3:58.69. Shnaider later had a third place finish in the 200 breast, finishing the race in 2:07.33.
Spenser Lauver battled to earn a second place finish in the 1650 free race, finishing in 15:57.16.
Konarzewski and Melin finished in third and fourth place in the 100 fly, with Konarzewski clocking in at 49.99 seconds, and Melin in 50.28 seconds. Jordan Hawley came in third place in the 100 free, touching the pad in 45.25 seconds.
Swimming the 800 free relay for the first time this year, the Tigers fared well with the team of Hendricks, Sellers, Shnaider and Cameron Sellers coming in third in 6:47.66.
Cameron Sellers took home a third place finish in the 200 fly, clocking in at 1:52.08 to round out the Tiger individual swimmers.
The Missouri team as a whole is off the next few weeks until the Big 12 Championships, but will have athletes competing in the Missouri Grand Prix in two weeks.