Missouri Hosts Mizzou Dual Challenge

COLUMBIA, Missouri, November 3. THE Missouri men's and women's swimming and diving teams used every part of their depth in sweeping the men's and women's meets on the first day of the Mizzou Dual Challenge at the Mizzou Aquatic Center on Friday.

The men defeated SIU 110-76 with the women earning a 117-69 victory. Missouri evened its record to 1-1 on the men's side and improved to 2-1 on the women's side.

SIU's men claimed first in the 200 free relay, 200 free and 200 individual medley to jump out to a 34-21 lead.

Then the Tigers awoke from their slumber. Junior Bennett Clark won the 50 freestyle in a season-best time of 20.58 and junior Travis Floyd cruised to a 50 backstroke win by more than a second as MU trimmed the deficit to 47-46.

Freshman Martin Cernansky led a one-two-three-four sweep in the 100 breaststroke as all four Tiger swimmers swam season-lows and gave Missouri a 62-50 lead. Clark took gold in the 100 free with another top performance and the 400 medley relay quartet of Floyd, Cernansky, junior Alex Zasadny and freshman Dylan Lynn touched first in 3:24.92.

Missouri divers took the top two spots on the 3-meter board to close out the meet.

"We had good depth and kept the pressure on (after those first few races)," head coach Brian Hoffer said. "It was a very good win against a top-30 team."

Missouri's women led from the first relay as they won seven of the 10 events, including both the 200 free and 400 medley relays. Sophomore Lori Halvorson, senior Amy Charley and sophomore Jill Granger led a Tiger sweep in the 200 IM. Junior Taye Patterson continued her strong racing with a first-place showing in the 100 back for her second-consecutive victory in a season-best 56.82.

Sophomore Lauren Cox captured gold in the 100 free in 52.36 to record her fastest time of the year. She also scored in the 200 free for the Tigers.

"Taye (Patterson) was fantastic tonight," Hoffer said. "Her repeating those backstroke races makes us a better team."

Other meets contested on Friday included SIU and Iowa splitting the men's and women's meets. SIU won the 1-meter diving 12-7 to overtake Iowa for the win, 91-90, while the SIU men won six races for a 105.5-78.5 win. In the late meet of the session, Louisville cruised to wins in the men's and women's races by scores of 107-87 and 118.5-65.5, respectively.

Action continues on Saturday at 9 a.m. and again at 5 p.m. Both sessions will be at the Mizzou Aquatic Center.

Final Scores
Women
SIU 91
Iowa 90

Missouri 117
SIU 69

Louisville 118.5
Drury 65.5

Men
SIU 105.5
Iowa 78.5

Missouri 110
SIU 76

Louisville 107
Drury 78

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