NSISC Championships page

ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's swimming team will look to complete its run of titles at the New South Intercollegiate Swimming Championships this weekend as it seeks its seventh straight meet victory in the four-day event that begins Wednesday evening at Delta State University in Cleveland, Miss.

This weekend's meet will mark the final time that the Miners will compete for the NSISC championship as the Great Lakes Valley Conference – the league in which all of the other Missouri S&T athletic teams competes in – announced Tuesday that it will begin sponsorship of swimming as a conference sport beginning in the 2013-14 season.

Therefore, in this final run, the sixth-ranked Miners will look to continue the impressive streak of titles and hopefully solidify a couple of more berths to the NCAA Division II Championships.  They will be in competition with five other teams – four of whom are listed in the latest College Swimming Coaches Association of America rankings, including No. 1 Drury, No. 20 Ouachita Baptist, No. 21 Delta State and No. 23 Henderson State.

Entering competition this weekend, the Miners have six individuals who have made the automatic qualifying standard to compete at the national meet next month in Birmingham, Ala.  Seniors Andrew Schranck (Alton, Ill./Marquette Catholic) and Jacob Dole (Corbin, Ky./Country Day School), junior Matt Zieger (St. Joseph, Mo./Central) and freshmen Keith Sponsler (Lincoln, Neb./Lincoln East), Aljaz Kerc (Ljubljana, Slovenia/Gimnazija Bezigrad) and Danylo Mykhailov (Khankiv, Ukraine/Sport Collegue N.S.) have all earned their spots in the national field.

Heading into competition this weekend, Kerc owns the sixth-fastest time in NCAA Division II in the 100-yard freestyle of 44.81 seconds, while Mykhailov has the ninth-best time nationally in the 50-yard freestyle of 20.40 seconds.  Kerc is also ninth in the 200-breaststroke with a time of 2:00.45.

Dole's mark of 44.88 seconds in the 100-freestyle ranks ninth in the nation, while his best time of 20.50 seconds in the 50-freestyle is 13^th.  Schranck has the 14^th-fastest mark in the 100-butterfly of 49.22 seconds.

In addition, two other Miners who have not made an automatic qualifying time to date rank among the top 10 in the nation in their events.  Ethan Goldfarb (Arlington, Texas/The Oakridge School) has the third-best time in the country in the 400-yard individual medley of 3:55.42 as well as the sixth-best in the 200-yard breaststroke of 1:59.61, while Luke Norris (The Woodlands, Texas/The Woodlands)' mark of 1:38.93 in the 200-freestyle currently ranks 11^th.

In the relays, the Miners have the third-best time in the 200-freestyle event of 1:20.31 and the 400-free relay of 2:59.21.  Their 200-yard medley relay team is fourth at 1:29.02, while the 800-yard freestyle relay team ranks seventh with a top mark of 6:39.16 and the 400-yard medley relay is currently eighth at 3:18.82.

The four-day meet begins Wednesday with the 1,000-yard freestyle and two relays and will run through Saturday.