Mizzou Men Off to Strong Start at Mizzou Invite
11/20/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving, Swimming & Diving
COLUMBIA, Mo. - The Mizzou men's swimming and diving team won four events and set two school records as they opened competition at the three day Mizzou Invite Thursday at the Mizzou Aquatic Center. The Tigers lead sit in first place with 471 points after day one. Drury is in second with 310 points, followed by West Virginia (220), UNLV (164) and Missouri S&T (80).
The Tigers opened finals with a bang, smashing the program's 200 free relay record with a swim of 1:17.64, an NCAA A qualifying time. The team of redshirt junior Matthew Margritier, sophomore Michael Chadwick, senior Sam Tierney and sophomore Christian Aragona combined to easily break the old mark of 1:18.20.
In the morning session, Margritier added a school mark of his own with a record breaking swim in the 50 free. The junior touched the wall in 19.41 to break the mark by almost 0.2. In finals, Margritier swam a 19.59 to place second in the event. Tierney took sixth in 20.04, following a morning personal best time of 19.84.
In the diving well, Mizzou's three Tigers claimed first, second and third on 1-meter. Senior Clark Thomas claimed his fourth win on the board in four tries this season with a finals score of 36
Senior Eegan Groome led a one-two-three sweep for the Tigers in the 500 free. Groome posted an NCAA B time of 4:19.56 in finals, and was followed by senior Andrew Phillips (4:24.64) and sophomore Martin Wallace (4:26.75). Martin's finals time was a season best, while Phillips swam a 4:23.55 in prelims.
The Tigers swept the top four spots in the 200 IM, led by a first place finish from senior Mack Darragh. Darragh won the event with a time of 1:45.50, followed by senior Igor Kozlovskij in second (1:45.69), senior Austin Fish in third (1:47.68) and junior Daniel Graviss in fourth (1:48.24). Additionally, Chadwick swam a 1:44.90 in prelims to move up to second all-time at Mizzou in the event and less than two tenths of Tierney's school mark.
In the 100 fly, sophomore Andrew Sansoucie placed second overall after a finals swim of 47.62, which was 0.22 slower than his prelims time. Freshman Drew Dvorak took fifth in finals with a 48.81, while Alex Glogoza was seventh (48.88) and freshman Carter Wallace eighth (48.91). In prelims swims, Darragh touched in 47.51 and Wallace clocked a time of 48.05.
Missouri closed out day one competition with a win in the 400 medley relay. The quartet of sophomore Carter Griffin, Tierney, Sansoucie and Chadwick swam the third fastest time in program history, 3:10.11, for the victory.
Day two action at the Mizzou Invite continues on Friday, Nov. 21 with preliminary action at 10 a.m. and the finals session at 6 p.m.
Players Mentioned
