Delta State Invitational – Day 3 results

CLEVELAND, Miss.  --  Missouri S&T's swimming team closed its final pre-holiday meet with a winning effort in the 400-yard freestyle relay, allowing the Miners to complete a fourth place team performance in the three-day Delta State Christmas Invitational.

The team of Luke Norris (The Woodlands, Texas/The Woodlands), Aljaz Kerc (Ljubljana, Slovenia/Gimnazija Bezigrad), Keith Sponsler (Lincoln, Neb./Lincoln East) and Jon Glaser (Wildwood, Mo./Lafayette) won the 400-free relay in a time of 3:00.55, with Norris' opening leg of 45.70 also surpassing the NCAA's provisional qualifying standard.

Glaser and Ethan Goldfarb (Arlington, Texas/The Oakridge School) added another event to the list of the ones they have made a provisional qualifying mark in with their performances Monday in the 1,650-yard freestyle, as Glaser posted a time of 15:50.77 to finish fourth and Goldfarb finished right behind him in 15:55.66.  Goldfarb also got another B-cut in the 200-yard breaststroke when he placed third in 2:01.35.

Colton Krause (Bartlesville, Okla./Bartlesville) added another provisional mark himself with a second place time of 1:49.19 in the 200-yard butterfly, while Norris made a provisional cut in the 100-yard freestyle when he won the consolation final in 46.14 seconds.

Missouri S&T finished the meet with eight individuals who have made NCAA provisional marks.

Sponsler finished sixth in the 100-freestyle in 46.25 seconds and Ryan Layne (Houston, Texas/Cypress Creek) was sixth in the 200-backstroke in 1:55.83.   Drew Larkins (Chesterfield, Mo./Parkway Central) ended up seventh in the 200-yard breaststroke event in 2:06.27.

The Miners finished the meet with 585 points as Lindenwood took the team title by a wide margin over the host school.

Missouri S&T's next competition will take place after New Year's when it takes part in a meet at the University of California-San Diego.

Sunday's recap

Delta State Invitational – Day 2 results

CLEVELAND, Miss.  --  Missouri S&T's swimming team added two more NCAA Division II provisional qualifiers Sunday to extend its total to eight after two days of competition at the Delta State Christmas Invitational.

The latest provisional qualifiers for the Miners were Ryan Layne (Houston, Texas/Cypress Creek), who did so with a time of 4:03.61 in the preliminaries of the 400-yard individual medley; and Colton Krause (Bartlesville, Okla./Bartlesville), who finished second in the 100-yard butterfly in 49.58 seconds to land his first provisional mark.  Layne would later take third in the event in the finals with a time of 4:04.13.

Ethan Goldfarb (Arlington, Texas/The Oakridge School) had a second place finish in the 400-yard individual medley and surpassed the qualifying standard for the U.S. Winter Nationals with a time of 3:56.78.  Krause also reached a Winter Nationals qualifying time in the finals of the 100-butterfly.

A trio of Miners – Jon Glaser (Wildwood, Mo./Lafayette), Keith Sponsler (Lincoln, Neb./Lincoln East) and Luke Norris (The Woodlands, Texas/The Woodlands) – all added provisional marks in the 200-yard freestyle as they all finished among the top four in the finals.  Glaser won the event in 1:39.69 after going 1:39.46 in the preliminaries, while Sponsler was third in 1:40.65 and Norris fourth in 1:41.24.

Those three, along with Aljaz Kerc (Ljubljana, Slovenia/Gimnazija Bezigrad), also made a provisional qualifying time in the 800-yard freestyle relay when that quartet finished second in 6:43.70.

S&T also had a fourth place showing from its 400-yard medley relay team of Luis Nesrala (Santo Domingo, D.R./Colegio Amador), Drew Larkins (Chesterfield, Mo./Parkway Central), Krause and Kerc with a time of 3:24.91.  Larkins finished sixth in the 100-yard breaststroke with a mark of 57.67 seconds, while Nesrala was fifth in the 100-backstroke in 52.45 seconds and Layne took sixth in 52.61..

Saturday's recap

Delta State Invitational – Day 1 results

Missouri S&T added five provisional qualifiers for the NCAA Division II Championships on the opening day of competition at the Delta State Christmas Invitational, giving it six who have reached a qualifying mark overall to date.

Jon Glaser (Wildwood, Mo./Lafayette) made a provisional cut in the 500-yard freestyle with his time of 4:28.13 in the preliminaries, a time that also surpassed the qualifying standard for the Winter U.S. national meet.  Glaser would later finish third in the event in 4:29.59. 

Ethan Goldfarb (Arlington, Texas/The Oakridge School), who was the only Miner who had made a provisional cut prior to this weekend, also reached one in the preliminaries of the 500-freestyle in 4:35.06.

Keith Sponsler (Lincoln, Neb./Lincoln East) earned a provisional time in the 50-yard freestyle when he clocked in at 20.87 in the preliminaries; he would later post a 21.05 seconds in the finals to finish fourth in the process.

The Miners' 200-yard freestyle relay team of Luis Nesrala (Santo Domingo, D.R./Colegio Amador), Aljaz Kerc (Ljubljana, Slovenia/Gimnazija Bezigrad), Sponsler and Luke Norris (The Woodlands, Texas/The Woodlands) made a provisional mark in their race with a time of 1:23.43, which put them in fourth place in the finals.

S&T also got a sixth place finish from Norris in the 50-yard freestyle in 21.21 seconds, a seventh from Colton Krause (Bartlesville, Okla./Bartlesville) in the 200-yard individual medley in 1:54.02 and eighths from Goldfarb in the 500-free and Kerc in the 50-freestyle.  The Miners' 200-yard medley relay team of Nesrala, Drew Larkins (Chesterfield, Mo./Parkway Central), Krause and Sponsler placed fourth in 1:33.11.