By Fred Sington<\/p>\n
LITTLE ROCK, ARK., Dec. 4.-The Delta State University men's and women's swimming and diving programs traveled to Arkansas to take part in the annual Christmas Invitational at University of Arkansas-Little this weekend, and returned with an overall second place finish behind Southwest
\nMissouri State. <\/p>\n
The Lady Statesmen posted 550 points over the two-day tournament to finish second behind SMS, while the Statesmen recorded 477 points to finish fourth in an 11-school field. <\/p>\n
The weekend saw 11 Delta State swimmers qualify for the NCAA Division II Championships in March. Tara Lewis (Houston, Texas) qualified for the NCAA B-Cut in the 200-butterfly with a time of 2:11.04, which was good enough to win gold in the event. Shelley Baker (Rogers, Ark.) powered to top finish in the 50-freestyle with a time of 25.13, a mark that qualified the freshman sprinter for the NCAA B-Cut in the event. <\/p>\n
Baker later teamed with Allyn Meador (Cleveland), Jennifer Armstrong (Winter Springs, Fla.) and Natalie Smith (Jackson) in the 200-freestyle relay squad to set a Delta State record with a mark of 1:42.03. Lone
\nsenior Leslie McLin (Baton Rouge, La.) added a valuable 16 points to the Lady Statesmen effort this weekend with her 367.80-point performance on
\nthe 3-meter board, a total that equaled a new Lady Statesmen record. <\/p>\n
For the Statesmen, Chris Edmaiston (Sherman, Texas) kept his undefeated streak in tact in the distance event, as the freshman swam to an NCAA A-Cut in the 1,650-freestyle with a time of 16:06.96. Edmaiston also qualified for an NCAA B-Cut in the 500-freestyle with a mark of 4:40.28. The dual effort also set new Delta State records in the 1,650- and 500-freestyle.<\/p>\n
John David Deville (Alexandria, La.) had an equally successful weekend, as the sophomore qualified for the three NCAA B-Cuts in the 200-individual medley (1:56.15), 100-breaststroke (59.41) and 100-butterfly (51.54). Fellow sophomores Brian Shaw (Jackson), Billy Patterson (San Angelo,Texas) and Justin Whitaker (Humble, Texas) qualified for NCAA B-Cuts in the 200-freestyle (1:43.92), 50-freestyle (21.30) and 200-backstroke (1:53.37), respectively. Whitaker's effort in the 200-backstroke also set a new team record.<\/p>\n
Onurkan Guvensel (Istanbul, Turkey) rounded out the Delta State qualifying contingent, as the freshman logged a time of 2:09.11 in the 200-breaststroke, making himself eligible for the NCAA B-Cut in March.
\nThe time also set a new Statesmen record in the event. <\/p>\n
Head coach Ronnie Mayers, pleased with his team's showing, said after the meet, "We had a real good efforts this weekend. I'm excited for the program."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Fred Sington LITTLE ROCK, ARK., Dec. 4.-The Delta State University men's and women's swimming and diving programs traveled to Arkansas to take part in the annual Christmas Invitational at<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[9237,8264,2576,8254,8250,8256,8265,2729,32,178,754,2189,9235,9233,9234,9230,8252,251,8253,9232,9236,9238,154,8255,142,9231,366,350,1559,3091,9239],"class_list":["post-2024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zzzzzzzzz","tag-alexandria","tag-angelo","tag-arkansas","tag-billy-patterson","tag-brian-shaw-jackson","tag-chris-edmaiston","tag-cleveland","tag-delta-state-university","tag-florida","tag-head-coach","tag-houston","tag-istanbul","tag-jennifer-armstrong","tag-john-david-deville","tag-justin-whitaker","tag-leslie-mclin","tag-natalie-smith-jackson","tag-ncaa","tag-ronnie-mayers","tag-shelley-baker","tag-sms","tag-southwest-missouri","tag-sprinter","tag-statesmen","tag-swimming","tag-tara-lewis","tag-texas","tag-the-ncaa","tag-turkey","tag-university-of-arkansas","tag-university-of-arkansas-little"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n