Feb. 26, 2010
COLLEGE STAION, Texas - After another strong day of competition, the Missouri men's swimming and diving team remains in third place after day three of the 2010 Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championships.
The Tigers have 476 points going into tomorrow's final events, with Texas still leading the meet with 761 points and Texas A&M with 572 points.
The group of Jan Konarzewski, Michael Lopresti, Anders Melin and Jordan Hawley is the fourth Tiger relay team to break a school record at the championships, this time setting the new mark in the 400 medley event. The team finished in 3 minutes, 15.05 seconds, .28 seconds better than the mark set in 2009.
Just as important is the 47.64 in the 100 back opening leg of the event, where Konarzewski broke his own school record in the first of three events he would swim in during the day, including the 100 back individual swim.
After making a tough final, Konarzewski finished eighth in the 100 fly, reaching the end in 51.06 seconds. Konarzewski's first preliminary race of the day featured him in the competitive 100 fly, where his 48.44 second time put him in the eighth slot in the event. He knocked more than a half second off of his best time in the event, putting him third all time.
Melin, Scott Martin and Hawley scored for the Tigers in the event as well, taking the last three scoring spots in ninth, tenth and 11th place.
In the last race, Konarzewski attempted to break the school record he had already set in the 100 back earlier on Friday, and finished in 47.88 seconds for fifth place. The sophomore got into his third race of the day by clocking in at 48.48 seconds in the 100 back, placing him in lane seven for the finals, while John Higgins made it by finishing in 49.28 seconds. Higgins finished eighth in 49.13 seconds.
Ryan Sellers won the consolation heat, finishing in 50.15 seconds, while Adam Abernathy finished in 50.73 seconds.
Greg DeStephen was the highest finisher in the men's 3-meter diving competition, placing fourth with 378 points. Dante Jones and Dallas Becerra finished sixth and seventh to score points for the Tigers with 349.70 and 348.25 points, respectively.
Yaniv Shnaider finished sixth in the 400 IM finals, finishing the race in 3:52.10, improving his second place standing in school history by more than .70 seconds. Qupty finished in eighth place in 4:00.03, placing him ninth all-time in school history. Shnaider and Qupty both made the finals with Shnaider touching the pad in 3:59.15 and Qupty in 4:02.61.
John Higgins and Vito Cammisano also scored for the men's team in the race, with Higgins coming in 13th place and Cammisano in 14th place.
Jeff Hendricks came in seventh place in the 200 free championships, touching the pad in 1:38.45, .01 seconds from tying for fourth place in school history. Hendricks made the finals after his 1:28.58 time in the prelims put him in one of the outer lanes for the championship heat.
Ethan Rose earned five points for Missouri in the event by finishing 12th in the 200 free, while Cameron Sellers earned four by coming in 13th.
Lopresti finished his day with a seventh place finish in the 100 breast, finishing in 56.91 seconds, while Joe Hladik came in eighth in 57.42 seconds.
Lopresti and Hladik each made the finals of the 100 breast with a furious 25-yard comeback. Lopresti had the seventh best time in the event finishing in 56.40 seconds, while Hladik had the eighth best finishing in 56.51 seconds.
Qupty earned more points for Mizzou in the consolation event, finishing in ninth place, while Martin finished tenth.
The Tigers will wrap-up the championships tomorrow beginning at 10 a.m.