Jan Konarzewski will swim in both backstroke events this weekend.Jan Konarzewski will swim in both backstroke events this weekend.
Swimming & Diving

Three Tigers Head To National Meet

March 24, 2010

COLUMBIA, Mo. -

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Following the women's lead last week, the Missouri men's swimming and diving team will send three representatives to Columbus, Ohio, this week for the 2010 NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships at the Buckeye Aquatics Center. Jan Konarzewski, Greg DeStephen and Dante Jones all qualified with amazing performances the last two weeks of the regular season, Konarzewski in the conference championships and DeStephen and Jones at the zone diving meet.

 

Last Time Out

It's been nearly a month since Konarzewski competed in the 2010 Big 12 Swimming and Diving championships, but his performance at Texas A&M solidified his place among the rest of the nation. He set two new school records in the 100 and 200 back, and was a part of two school record relay teams as well. His pool-shattering swim in the 200 back shaved two seconds off of the school record time that he already owned and earned him the silver medal in the race.

 

DeStephen and Jones have been on a tear recently, as the duo made the medal stand at least once in each of their last two meet's. Jones took home two bronze medals in College Station for the conference championships and one from zones, with DeStephen taking home a silver at Big 12's and his second gold medal at the zone meet in the platform event.

 

The Meet

270 athletes and 71 relay teams qualified for this year's championships, with reigning Big 12 champion Texas leading the pack with 19 athletes qualified for the event. Arizona, Auburn, Cal and Ohio State are second with 18 participants each. Texas A&M rounds out the Big 12 conference, sending 10 athletes and five relay teams to the championships this year.

 

Konarzewski made the cut for both 100 and 200 back events, going into the meet with the 31st fastest time in the country in the 100 and 18th fastest time nationally in the 200.

 

Since they competed in all three events at zones, Jones and DeStephen will participate on both springboards and the tower competition this weekend. Jones heads into this weekend's competition as the 25th on the 1 and 3-meter springboards, and 19th on the platform nationally. DeStephen comes in 21st on the 1 and 3-meter boards and 15th on the platform.

 

The competition will begin at Noon on Thursday, beginning with the swimming preliminaries of the 200 free relay. The event can be followed live at http://www.ncaa.com/sports/m-swim/champpage/inc/div1/m-swim-div1-results.html.