ELKHART, Ind. – Missouri S&T swimmers recorded seven NCAA Division II provisional qualifying marks and had top-three finishes from Martin Melinder (Upplands Vasby, Sweden) and Alex Graham (Parker, TX/Homeschooled) to highlight its opening night of competition at the Great Lakes Valley Conference Swimming & Diving Championships.

Melinder took second in the 1,000-yard freestyle with a time of 9:17.85, well below the provisional qualifying standard, while Graham also went below the qualifying mark with his third place showing in that event of 9:18.64.

S&T also got a fourth place showing from Nate Baxter (St. Charles, IL/St. Charles North) in the 200-yard individual medley as he recorded a time of 1:49.31, while Andy Huffman (Lee's Summit, MO/Lee's Summit) finished seventh in that event in 1:49.69, both of which made the qualifying standard.  Huffman had recorded a time of 1:49.34 in the morning preliminaries, while Daniel Matlock (Peoria, IL/Richwoods), who competed in the B-final of the event, made a provisional qualifying mark in the morning race as well.

The Miners' top 200-yard relay team of Noah Clancy (Alton, IL/Alton), Joshua Umrysh (Kingwood, TX/Kingwood), Nate Baxter (St. Charles, IL/St. Charles North) and Nolan Fergus (Aurora, IL/Marmion Academy) finished fifth with a time of 1:28.52 that made the NCAA Division II provisional qualifying standard.  In the final event of the evening, the 200-yard freestyle relay team of Connor Wiedemeier (West Monroe, LA/West Monroe), Clancy, Gabe Asevedo and Fergus took sixth with a time of 1:21.40.

S&T also got scoring performances outside of the top eight from Marcelo Busch (Sao Centrano Do Sui-Sp, Brazil/Colegio Ateneu) in the 1,000-freestyle in 9:32.49, Matlock in the 200-IM of 1:51.44 and Jay Mercer (Kansas City, MO/Whitefield Academy) in the 200-IM of 1:52.89.

In the C-finals, Greg Driesewerd posted a time of 1:51.81 to finish second in that race in the 200-IM, with Chris Sprenger (Shawnee, KS/Mill Valley) finishing right behind him in 1:51.84.  S&T also had three finishers in the C-final of the 50-yard freestyle, led by Wiedemeier's mark of 20.76 seconds; Aidan Walters (Olathe, KS/Olathe East) finished in 20.80 and Alec Davis (Joplin, MO/Joplin) had a time of 20.96 seconds.  Wiedemeier also hit a provisional mark of 20.70 in the 50-freestyle in the morning session.

S&T's second 200-yard freestyle relay team of Davis, Walters, Cole Akal (Alton, IL/Alton) and Umrysh finished in a tie for 10th overall in a time of 1:22.74, while the other 200-yard medley relay team consisting of Mark Cavanaugh (Papillion, NE/Papillion-LaVista), Melinder, Huffman and Asevedo finished 14^th with a time of 1:31.03.

Missouri S&T currently sits in fifth place in the team standings with 322 points, 23 in back of Drury and over 100 points in front of Missouri-St. Louis.  Indianapolis holds the lead through the first night of competition with 482.5 points.

The meet will continue Thursday and runs through Saturday.