Swim teams win Showdown
MU swim team wins its second meet of the season.
Published Oct. 10, 2006
The MU swimming teams won both the men's and women's competition at the Show-Me Showdown on Saturday.
Facing six other Missouri schools, the meet was the second competition of the season for the teams.
The women's team finished with a team score of 394.50. Drury University came in second with 353.50, Washington University finished third with 263, Lindenwood University finished fourth with 239, and Stephens College finished with 126.
The men's team also finished with a score of 387. Drury came in second with 301, with UM-Rolla, Lindenwood and Washington University following in the standings.
Although not an exhibition, the Showdown has a different format than meets later in the season.
Each race was run only once with no preliminaries or finals.
In addition, several events will not be included in future meets, including the 100-yard individual medley, the 300-yard medley relay, the 50-yard breaststroke, the 50-yard backstroke, the 50-yard butterfly and the 200-yard medley relay.
Coach Brian Hoffer said every university in Missouri that has a swim team was invited, but some declined to participate.
Freshman Colleen Gordon and junior Taye Patterson both won two individual events and were on the winning 200-yard freestyle relay team to lead the women's team.
Patterson, whose two wins were in backstroke events, said she is focusing more on backstroke this year than during her two previous college seasons.
Gordon won both the 100- and 200-yard individual medleys and was on the winning 200-yard freestyle relay team.
She said she plans to focus on the 200-yard individual medley, as the 100-yard was an event unique to the Showdown.
She won the 200 IM with a time of 2:06.88 and said her goal this season is to swim under two minutes in this event.
Travis Floyd led the men's team with wins in both the 50- and 100-yard backstroke and was part of the winning 300-yard medley relay team.
Floyd said he will focus on the 100-yard backstroke as the 50-yard will not be run at later meets or at the NCAA Championships.
Floyd, who swam a time of 50.67 seconds in the 100, said he is chasing Lance Bohlman's 1995 school record of 49 seconds.
Floyd also said he would like to finish in the top three in the Big 12 and qualify for the NCAA meet. Although the number changes each year, Floyd said a time of 48.2 to 48.3 seconds was necessary to qualify for NCAA competition in previous years.
Hoffer said he was pleased with the results of the meet.
He said he was worried about strategy and "not overly concerned about time."
The teams' next meet is the Big 12 Relays in Lincoln, Neb., on Friday.