Missouri Invite: Day One

COLUMBIA, Missouri, December 5. THE Missouri men's swimming and diving team leads the Mizzou Invite after day one with 358 total points. With victories in four of the six events, the Tigers take a commanding lead over second place Arizona State who is 98 points back.

"Overall it was a pretty solid first day," head coach Brian Hoffer said. "We had some spots where we could have done better, but I think we will come out strong and have a really good day tomorrow."

In the 400 medley relay, the team of Jan Konarzewski, Michael Lopresti, Anders Melin and Jordan Hawley finished in first place with a time of 3:18.01 on the back of a 47.91 split on the first leg to take the race. Ryan Sellers, Scott Martin, Yaniv Schnaider and Jeff Hendricks finished third in 3:23.29.

The men's team of Hawley, Melin, Hendricks and Martin began the finals with a win in the 200 free relay, clocking in at 1:21.69, while the team of Joe Hladik, Cameron Sellers, Konarzewski and Adam Abernathy finished third in 1:23.58.

Hawley and Melin battled for the 50 free title to the end, with Hawley earning the edge in the race finishing in 20.27 second for first place, with Melin clocking in at 20.80 seconds for second place.

Dante Jones won his first 1-meter diving title of the year, besting teammates Greg DeStephen and Dallas Becerra who finished second and third. Jones won the title with 372.20 points, while DeStephen had 337.95 points and Becerra had 298.05 points.

Schnaider took second place in the 200 IM, clocking in at 1:49.71 while Konarzewski finished sixth in the race in 1:52.89.

Sellers, Spenser Lauver and Hendricks finished second, third and fourth in the 500 free, with Sellers clocking in at 4:29.46, Lauver finishing in 4:30.01 and Hendricks finishing in 4:30.21.

With an NCAA qualifying time, three overall titles and loading up on points by finishing in the top six, the Missouri women's swimming and diving team leads the field after day one of the Mizzou Tiger invite with 364 total points.

"The girls did a great job today, and we had a lot of good performances all around," Tiger coach Brian Hoffer said. "I think if we come out and compete as well as we did today, tomorrow could be even better."

Taking the first event of the finals, the group of Lisa Nathanson, Kim Jasmer, Cassie Cunninngham and Frances Szostak won the 200 free relay in 1:32.28, hitting the NCAA "B" cut line just ahead of Arizona State who finished in 1:33.25. The time is also set a meet record in the process.

Jasmer then took her success in the relay and transferred it to the 500 free, taking first place with a time of 4:48.39, while Szostak, Colleen Gordon and Stephanie Rovig all finished in the top six.

Christina Gailey earned her first diving title of the year in winning the 3-meter event. Her 308.25 points was more than thirty points better than teammate Abby Zepeda who had 207.90 points. Jordan Morcom and Sharon Finn finished fourth and fifth with 268.90 and 262.45 points respectively.

In the 50 free, Jasmer finished .01 seconds behind North Dakota's Carissa Gormally finishing in second place in the event in 23.16 seconds. Following Jasmer was Nathanson who took in 23.37 seconds.

Dominique Bouchard took third place in the 200 IM, finishing in 2:03.92, besting her preliminary mark by nearly two seconds.

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