Swim, diving teams look ahead to Big 12 conference
Published Dec. 5, 2006
While Missouri was in a snowy state of emergency, MU's swimming and diving teams were in Athens, Ga., at the Georgia Fall Invitational, creating a state of emergency for their competition.
The men's swimming team took third place, scoring 635 points; the women finished fourth, racking up 485 points; and the diving team swept the platform diving competition.
The field of competition was tough, with several top-ranking teams present.
Despite the attendance of such dominating forces, several MU swimmers were able to finish in record time.
In just one weekend, six school records were broken and eight NCAA provisional cuts were made.
Sophomore Jill Granger, who finished fifth overall and garnered a NCAA provisional spot for her qualifying time of 16:31.71 in the 1650 freestyle, attributed her and the team's success to all the hard work they have put in.
"We trained extremely hard this semester," Granger said. "It was really different from any other year. I was a little more well-rested than other swimmers, and I had more experience as a sophomore."
Coach Brian Hoffer said he was pleased with the performances of all the swimmers, but particularly Granger's, calling her performance in the mile as one of the better swims in the history of the program.
"Jill Granger exploded this weekend," he said. "It was her breakout meet. I never could have expected her to do what she did. She had four great events."
Contributing on the diving board was Greg DeStephen, who was able to garner the top spot after a brief stumble on the tower. DeStephen finished 54.60 points ahead of second place and helped contribute to the diving team's success along with sophomore Kendra Melnychuk, who won two events.
Hoffer said he is pleased with the performance of all the swim teams.
"I was really pleased with the depth we showed," Hoffer said. "Previous years we might have one really good swimmer and then it jumps up quite a bit. I was very, very pleased with how not only our top guys swam well, but all the guys in the event really stepped up."
One of the team's goals is to obtain more national recognition, and Hoffer said this meet is a step in the right direction.
"I think (the meet) was extremely successful," Hoffer said. "We got a lot of things done that we wanted to do."
Despite the success, Hoffer said he understands that there's always something you can do to get better.
"Fitness wise, we're pretty fit," he said. "I don't worry about that too much. But we have a lot of technical things we need to get better at. That's simple things like starts and turns and break-outs, streamlining."
Junior Travis Floyd is also looking toward the future and agrees that improvements need to be made as soon as possible.
"There are lots of little things I need to work on, the turns and stuff like that," Floyd said. "I just hope to improve before the Big 12 conference comes around."
The conference poses a challenge for the Tigers. Both the men's and women's teams face two ranked teams, with Texas' men's team ranked No. 1 in the nation.Team members said they don't expect to be scared by the challenges ahead.
"You don't look at how high those teams are ranked, you just go in and compete," Floyd said. "(Texas) A&M is well within reach. We had a good meet with them earlier in the year. It's always our goal to beat them."
