INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Missouri S&T got a second place showing from Tim Samuelsen (Stavanger, Norway/St. Svithun VGS) and a fifth place performance from its 400-yard freestyle relay team to record its highest national finish in 10 seasons, as the Miners placed sixth at the conclusion of the NCAA Division II Swimming & Diving Championships.

Samuelsen, who won the national championship in the 1,650-freestyle a year ago, hung with eventual champion Adam Rosipal of Indianapolis for much of the race before Rosipal began pulling away over the final 350 yards.  Samuelsen was able to hold off Delta State's Nathan Sawicki to retain the second spot as he finished the race in 15:12.18, just under a second ahead of Sawicki.

Missouri S&T finished the meet with a fifth place finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay behind the team of Kevin McPherson (Oakdale, MN/Tartan), Morgan Meyer (Ruston, LA/Ruston), Marco Flores (San Pedro Sula, Honduras/SERAN Private Bilingual School) and Chris Betts (Katy, TX/Cinco Ranch), as it ended up with a time of 2:57.63.  That fifth place finish, worth 28 points in the team score, locked up the sixth spot in the final standings for the Miners.

In the consolation finals, Andy Huffman (Lee's Summit, MO/Lee's Summit) took second in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:58.81 and Meyer finished third in the 100-yard freestyle with a time that matched his mark from the preliminaries – 43.99 seconds.  The only other Miner in competition Saturday, Aaron Taske (Fairfield, OH/Saint Xavier), had a time of 15:55.20 in the finals of the 1,650-freestyle.

The Miners finished with 207 points as a team to edge future Great Lakes Valley Conference member Lindenwood for sixth, with fellow conference McKendree coming in eighth place at 11 points in back of the Miners.  The sixth place finish was the best for an S&T team since 2009, when the Miners came in third place at the national meet.

It was also S&T's first finish in the top 10 of the team standings since It came in ninth at the 2011 national meet and is the program's 20^th top-10 national finish since 1977.

Queens (N.C.) scored 606 points to win the national championship.