The 2021 Mid-American Conference men’s swimming and diving championships from Oxford concluded its first day of the post-NCAA championships as the host Miami Redhawks lead the meet over Missouri State and Southern Illinois. Missouri State and Miami have swapped the last three team championships as the Bears won in 2020 and 2018, and the Redhawks won in 2019.
Team Scores
- Miami, 260
- Missouri State, 232
- Southern Illinois, 186
- Ball State, 164
- Evansville, 56
The Miami Redhawks won both relays on Thursday night at the Mid-American Conference championships, starting off with the 200 free relay at 1:18.73, which is the conference record. The team of Pedro Gueiros (20.14), Cole Grosshans (19.60), Nic Wamsley (19.46) and Ben Chatwin (19.53) won ahead of Southern Illinois (1:19.66) and Ball State (1:21.09), becoming the first conference team to go faster than 1:19.
The Redhawks also closed out the night in winning the 400 medley relay at 3:10.30, which also broke Missouri State’s meet record of 3:10.46 from 2018. The team of Owen Blazer (47.68), Noah Barr (53.12), Henju Duvenhage (46.07) and Nic Wamsley (43.43) beat the best from the Missouri Valley as Missouri State was second (3:13.59) and Southern Illinois (3:16.00) was third.
Duvenhage, who was the separator in the medley relay with a butterfly split two seconds quicker than anyone, won the 200 IM at 1:45.45 over Missouri State’s Arthur Curry (1:45.80) as the conference record of 1:44.0 from Uvis Kalnins in 2014 will last another day.
Missouri State captured a win in the 500 free from junior Pawel Krawczyk at 4:19.40 as he went 1-2 with teammate in freshman Dylan Moffatt (4:20.84). The Bears also captured a win in the 1m diving with Michael Claunch (310.00) beating Ball State’s Hunter Ongay (298.55).
“I’m impressed with everyone’s performance, we had couple of best times,” Krawczyk stated. “Most importantly, even when we were heavily outnumbered, we didn’t give up any field, everyone swam or dived on their highest possible level. I’m proud of every single one on the team.”
“Winning the 1-Meter tonight is a feeling unlike any other,” Claunch said. “To know that I went out of my last 1-meter event on the highest note I could, is indescribable. But even more than the pride I feel in my performance, is the pride I feel for my teammates. All the guys came out to win today and I’m hoping we can keep this energy going into the next couple days of competition.”
Southern Illinois also had something to celebrate as junior transfer Zander Minano won the 50 free at 19.90, breaking the Salukis’ school record in the process as he led a 1-3-4 finish for the Salukis with freshmen Donat Csuvarszki (20.06) and Marc Avery (20.13). Miami’s Nic Wamsley finished in second (19.92) for the Redhawks.