No. 18/13 Mizzou Swimming & Diving Opens Mizzou Invite With Eight Event Wins

Thursday, November 19

Columbia, Mo.

All Day

Missouri

Mizzou Invite

No. 18/13 Mizzou Swimming & Diving Opens Mizzou Invite With Eight Event Wins

11/19/2020 8:48:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving, Women's Swimming and Diving

COLUMBIA, Mo. - The No. 18/13 Mizzou men's and women's swimming and diving teams claimed eight wins to open action at the three-day Mizzou Invite on Thursday at the Mizzou Aquatic Center. With two days of competition remaining, the Tiger men are first with 437 points, ahead of Kentucky (319) and BYU (15), and the women sit third (262), narrowly behind Kentucky (296) and Arkansas (272). The BYU women are fourth with 10 points.

TOP TIGERS

Five different Tigers claimed individual event wins during day one action on Thursday. In the women's 50 free, senior Sarah Thompson (Collierville, Tenn.) took top honors, just ahead junior Megan Keil (Derby, Kan.), 22.83 to 22.91. During prelims, Thompson notched the second-fastest time in the nation with a 21.76, just ahead of Keil's personal best 22.83, which stands second third and ties her for third all-time at Mizzou in the event.

Sophomore Katrina Brathwaite (Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Quebec, Canada) knocked almost a full four seconds off her previous 200 IM best with a finals time of 1:57.75. Brathwaite sat fourth at the 100-yard mark but used a strong final 100 to roar back for the win, and moved herself into fifth-place all-time at Mizzou in the process.

In the diving well, junior Sarah Rousseau (Melbourne, Fla.) went a season-best 333.85 to place first overall in the 3-meter competition. The score was 20 points clear of the second-place finisher and a season-best score by over 30 points.

Junior Danny Kovac (Fort Collins, Colo.) earned his sixth win of the young season in the 200 IM. After a 1:42.66 in prelims, which was six-hundredths of a second off his personal-best, Kovac posted a 1:43.91 in finals to finish first.

Also with an individual win on Thursday was junior Jack Dubois (Alpharetta, Ga.). Dubois went 4:20.43 in the evening session, almost a second faster than his prelims time.

Mizzou also placed first in the men's and women's 200 free relays and the men's 400 medley relay, as the women's 200 free relay narrowly missed an NCAA 'A' qualifying time with a 1:28.59.

QUOTABLES

Mizzou Head Coach Andrew Grevers
"We started the meet off great with a whole bunch of lifetime bests in prelims. We came out with high energy tonight for the finals session. The first relays, right off the bat, were really strong. We're certainly putting the pieces together. Our athletes are going a lot of lifetime bests but they're also really hungry for more. We have a lot of Tigers who are expressing their desire to be faster and we're excited to work with them to get them there. All in all, it was a great first day here at the Mizzou Invite, and I'm truly excited to keep it rolling tomorrow morning."

UP NEXT

The Mizzou Network continues on Friday, Nov. 20, with swimming prelims at 9 a.m. and diving prelims at 12:30 p.m. The women's 1-meter final will commence at 1:45 p.m. and swimming finals, followed immediately after by the men's 3-meter final, will begin at 6 p.m. The 6 p.m. finals session will be broadcast live on SEC Network +.