Feb. 19, 2007

Results

COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The Missouri men's swimming and diving team concluded the 11th Big 12 Championship with its second-highest score and its sixth-consecutive third-place finish. Along the way the Tigers posted school record in three individual events and a trio of relays.

Leading the way was junior Bennett Clark who scored 41 points in his three individual events while setting school records in the 100 freestyle and butterfly. He finished the meet with NCAA provisional qualifying times in the both 100s and the 50 free as he lowered his career-best to 20.03 which is among the 20-fastest in the nation this year.

On the first day of the championships, the Tigers posted the second-fastest 200 medley relay time in school history and then broke the MU mark in the 800 free with a NCAA "B" cut time of 6:36.40

Freshman Dylan Lynn stole the headlines on the meet's second day with the two fastest swims in the 500 free ever by a Tiger. He broke the school record in the morning prelims and bettered that mark in the championship finals with a fourth-place time of 4:24.78 - more than five seconds faster than the previous mark which had stood since 2002.

The Tigers set their second relay record of the meet when the 400 medley quartet of Travis Floyd, Martin Cernansky, Alex Zasadny and Clark shaved seven hundredths off their record-setting time from December of 2006.

Mizzou swam four more NCAA provisional times on the final day and capped off the meet with its third relay record, knocking four-tenths of a second off the previous standard to 3:00.12.

Jake Hoffman and Brice Grunert each produced NCAA "B" cut times in the prelims of the 200 back and butterfly, respectively. Cernansky claimed fourth in the 200 breast in 2:00.07 - marking the second-fastest ever by a Tiger in that event. His time was nearly two seconds faster than his previous best, set at Georgia in December.

In the diving events, freshmen Greg DeStephen and Ryan Meeker posted solid numbers and showed that the future of Mizzou diving is in good hands. DeStephen finished third in both springboards before taking fourth in the platform. Meeker dove to his best result in the 1-meter with a fifth-place result, while junior David Boyko improved his standing in each competition with his best result a fifth-place on the tower.