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| Matt Hug |
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- The University of Missouri-Rolla swimming team gained 10 automatic qualifiers over the weekend for the NCAA Division II Championships as part of its winning performance in the Arkansas-Little Rock Christmas Invitational.
UMR qualified several through three relay teams, with the 400-yard medley relay team of Kyle Kammer, David Calcara, Travis Stensby and Mark Chamberlain posting a time of 3:23.81 that finished just behind Drury's quartet that reached the wall in 3:23.44, the 200-freestyle relay team of Chris Scheuber, Chamberlain, Matt Adams and David Sanchez-Turner making it in a time of 1:22.50 and the 200-medley team of Stensby, Bill Gaul, Adams and Scheuber qualifying Saturday in 1:33.17.
The Miners also had others made the national meet on an individual basis, led by Matt Hug making the automatic qualifying mark in two events. Hug set a school record in the 1,650-yard freestyle Saturday of 15:47.06 after recording a time of 4:31.22 that narrowly missed the school record in the 500-freestyle Friday night. In addition, he won the 200-freestyle in 1:41.94.
Schueber also passed the automatic standard with a second place effort in the 50-yard freestyle with his time of 20.79 in the finals as did Stensby in both the 100-backstroke which he won in 50.84 seconds and the 100-butterfly where he took third place in the finals in 49.58. Stensby later won the 200-butterfly in a time of 1:53.64.
On Saturday, the Miners added Matt Hammond and Gaul to the qualifier list after each qualified in their respective events. Hammond qualified in the preliminary round of the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:04.84, while Gaul made it in the 200-medley relay; individually, he took eighth in the 200-breaststroke in Saturday's competition.
Adams, who did qualify for the meet through the relays, won the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 57.57 as his time of 57.43 in the preliminaries missed the automatic mark by just 0.04 seconds. He also had a close miss at the automatic time in the 100-butterfly where finished fourth in 50.37 seconds, just 0.08 off the automatic standard and in the 200-individual medley where he finished second in 1:53.56.
Calcara took second in the finals of the 200-breaststroke as he posted a time of 2:06.66, while Kyle Kammer took third in the 200-backstroke with a time of 1:52.89; he had a faster time in the preliminary round of 1:52.04 that was within a second of the automatic mark. Hammond also took third in the 400-individual medley where his preliminary time of 4:08.97 turned out to be his better mark of the day.
Fourth place finishes were recorded by Chamberlain in the 200-freestyle in 1:44.08, Kammer in the 100-backstroke in 51.91 seconds and the 200-IM in 1:57.51 and Brian Howell in the 200-butterfly in 1:55.97.
Andrew Trowbridge made the B-cut in the 1,650-freestyle in 16:05.32 and the 500-freestyle with a time of 4:36.96 that placed him fifth in the event -- he also took fifth in the 200-freestyle in 1:44.94 -- as did Chamberlain in the 50-freestyle with a time of 21.23 seconds and 100-free in 47.13, as well as Calcara in the 100-breaststroke in 58.47. Scheuber also had a fifth place showing in the 100-butterfly in 50.63, while Howell was sixth in 51.08, both of which fell under the B-cut standard.
Gaul also earned a sixth-place finish in the 100-breaststroke with a time of 58.47 while Scheuber's time of 47.63 in the finals of the 100-freestyle got him a sixth place finish as well.
David Sanchez-Turner took seventh in the 50-free with a time of 21.49 that also made the provisional qualifying standard, while Matt Hammond did likewise in the 100-breaststrole with his preliminary time of 58.89.
While the Miners' 400-medley relay team made the automatic qualifying mark, the 800-freestyle relay team of Chamberlain, Trowbridge, Howell and Hug wasn't quite able to get there as it finished with a time of 6:53.59. The 400-freestyle relay team took second in that event with a time of 3:07.54.
Other top eight finishers Friday included Dustin Spieker in the 400-IM (fifth in 4:14.39) and 200-yard backstroke (sixth in 1:57.67) and Rory Swift in the 200-backstroke (eighth in 1:59.52), while Saturday's other finalists were Andy Shelley in the 200-freestyle (seventh in 1:45.84) and 100-freestyle (eighth in 48.48), Spieker in the 100-backstroke (sixth in 54.66) and Sanchez-Turner in the 100-free (seventh in 47.56).
In the team competition, the Miners won the meet by nearly 80 points over Ouachita Baptist and beat defending national champion Drury by 85 in the final standings. UMR returns to meet competition during the first weekend of January when it competes in an invitational at the University of Indianapolis.
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