EVANSVILLE, Ind. – On the first full day of competition at the Great Lakes Valley Conference Swimming & Diving Championships, Missouri S&T had six of its individuals make NCAA Division II provisional qualifying times and has had four top-eight showings to put itself in fourth place in the team standings.

Connor Bichsel (Lee's Summit, MO/Lee's Summit West), who had the fastest time in the morning preliminaries of the 200-yard individual medley with a mark of 1:47.80, swam a 1:48.49 in the finals to take third in the event.  Bichsel also made an NCAA Division II B-cut with his time on Wednesday.

Nate Baxter (St. Charles, IL/St. Charles North) placed fifth in the 200-IM in 1:49.39, which was good for an NCAA Division II provisional mark as was the seventh place time of 1:49.51 recorded by Daniel Matlock (Peoria, IL/Richwoods) in the finals of that race.

To close Wednesday's competition, S&T's 200-yard medley relay team of Noah Clancy (Alton, IL/Alton), Jordan Christensen (Coralville, IA/Iowa West), Baxter and Nolan Fergus (Aurora, IL/Marmion Academy) finished in fifth place with a time of 1:28.63.

S&T also got a fourth place finish on Tuesday from its 800-yard freestyle relay team of Marcelo Busch (Sao Centrano Do Sui-Sp, Brazil/Colegio Ateneu), Connor Wiedemeier (West Monroe, LA/West Monroe), Martin Melinder (Upplands Vasby, Sweden/) and Aidan Walters (Olathe, KS/Olathe East) as it recorded a time of 6:36.63.

Melinder also finished 10^th in the 1,000-yard freestyle with a time of 9:27.94 that made an NCAA Division II B-cut, while Busch was 14^th in the event in 9:34.90 and Sam Weber (Portage, MI/Portage Central) finished 15^th in 9:40.80.  Wiedemeier finished in 14^th in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 20.59 seconds and made a provisional qualifying time in the process.

The Miners' second 800-yard freestyle relay team of Cameron McCrary (O'Fallon, MO/Fort Zumwalt West), Matlock, Weber and Lane Werth (Wichita, KS/Wichita North) placed 13^th in 6:44.84, while the second 200-yard medley relay team of Mark Cavanaugh (Papillion, NE/Papillion-LaVista), Jay Mercer (Kansas City, MO/Whitefield Academy), Greg Driesewerd and Matlock finished in 14^th in 1:31.06.

In the C-final races, Werth was 18^th in the 1,000-freestyle in 9:47.67, Mercer finished 19^th in the 200-IM in 1:50.95 and Chris Sprenger (Shawnee, KS/Mill Valley) was 20^th in that event in 1:51.41, while McCrary placed 22^nd with a time of 9:55.30 in the 1,000-free as did Dreisewerd in the 200-IM in 1:51.76.  Walters finished 23^rd overall in the 50-freestyle in 20.82 seconds.

Mercer made a B-cut with his time in the finals of the 200-IM.

The Miners finished the day with 312 points to land in the fourth spot in the standings.  Drury leads the competition through Wednesday's events with 425 points, while McKendree sits in second place and Indianapolis in third.  The meet continues on Thursday and runs through Saturday.