Missouri S&T had seven members of its swimming team selected to the College Swimming Coaches Association of America’s Scholar All-America team for the 2008-09 season.
Individuals with a grade point average of 3.5 or higher who qualified for the NCAA Division II Championships are eligible for selection to the squad, which had a total of 32 from the Division II ranks. The seven from Missouri S&T were the most of any school on the list.
The Miners named to the squad included senior
Brian Howell (Norman, Okla./North), who is majoring in chemistry; junior
Paul Reinisch (Wildwood, Mo./Lafayette), an aerospace engineering major; and sophomore
Jeff Enge (Edmond, Okla./Memorial), a mechanical engineering major.
Four freshmen were also selected --
Phil Arve (Raleigh, N.C./Athens Drive),
James Larkins (Chesterfield, Mo./Parkway Central), Andrew Schranck (Alton, Ill./Marquette) and
Hamilton Vernon (Omaha, Neb./Burke). Arve, Larkins and Schranck are all majoring in engineering, while Vernon is majoring in chemistry.
All seven of Missouri S&T’s selections to the squad earned All-America honors at the 2009 NCAA Division II Championships. The Miners finished third as a team at the meet, their third straight finish among the top four in the nation.
Miners’ Hamzic competes at World University Games
Missouri S&T’s
Zlatan Hamzic competed Thursday morning in the 50-yard breaststroke at the World University Games in Belgrade, Serbia, but was unable to reach the semifinals in the event.
Hamzic posted a time of 29.21 seconds to place third in his heat of the event. The fastest time of the heat came from Canada’s Chris Tobin of 28.76 seconds, but that mark wasn’t fast enough to earn a berth in the semifinals. The cutoff mark for the next round was 28.23 seconds.
The top time recorded in the opening heats came from Brazil’s Felipe Silva with a meet record of 27.45 seconds.
During the 2009 NCAA Division II Championships, Hamzic won the national championship in the 200-yard breaststroke and earned four All-America awards – he was also part of the Miners’ medley relay teams that finished among the top eight at the national meet – to go along with the four All-America awards he landed as a freshman in 2008. He was the national runner-up in the 200-yard breaststroke in his first season at S&T.
Hamzic also won three titles during the New South Intercollegiate Swimming Championships, winning both the 100- and 200-breaststroke along with the 400-medley relay.