INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Missouri S&T had three more scoring performances Thursday night as it stands in seventh place midway through the NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships.
Morgan Meyer (Ruston, LA/Ruston) had the highest finish by an S&T competitor thus far – and highest individual national finish of his career – as he came in fourth place in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:36.25. That time was also the second-fastest ever recorded by a Miner in that event in program history.
Meyer also had a hand in the Miners' other top-eight finish on Thursday, as he anchored the 200-yard freestyle relay team that included
Chris Betts (Katy, TX/Cinco Ranch),
Marco Flores (San Pedro Sula, Honduras/SERAN Private Bilingual School) and
Kevin McPherson (Oakdale, MN/Tartan) to a seventh place finish in the final with a time of 1:20.54.
S&T's other scoring performance Thursday came from its 400-yard medley relay team of
Ethan Shih (Papillion, NE/Papillion-LaVista), Flores,
Aaron Taske (Fairfield, OH/Saint Xavier) and Meyer, which finished third in the consolation final with a time of 3:14.59.
Also on Thursday,
Andy Huffman (Lee's Summit, MO/Lee's Summit) fell just short of qualifying for the evening session in the 400-yard individual medley as he had a time of 3:56.46, while Taske posted a time of 48.23 seconds in the 100-yard butterfly to end up 21
st overall.
At the halfway point of the meet, the Miners sit in seventh place in the team standings with 102 points and is currently second among the Great Lakes Valley Conference teams. Queens (N.C.) holds a commanding lead with 331 points as it has already recorded eight first place finishes in the meet.
On Friday, the Miners will have an entry in the 800-yard freestyle relay as well as
Tim Samuelsen (Stavanger, Norway/St. Svithun VGS) in the 500-yard freestyle, Flores and Josh Umrysh in the 100-yard breaststroke and Huffman and Taske competing in the 200-yard butterfly. The meet runs through Saturday.
