Miami University
Miami Invitational
Women First, Men Fourth at MU Invite
12/2/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving
Dec. 2, 2011
Dec. 2, 2011
OXFORD, Ohio - Four women swimmers won events and three men won their heats in the second day of competition Friday night at the Miami Invitational at the Nixon Aquatic Center. Miami's divers also had impressive performances as senior James Beres and sophomore Nikki Craft finished first among collegians.
The Miami women extended their meet lead from the start, winning the first four individual events as juniors Maegan O'Connor, Bekka Westrick, Stacie Clagg and Leah Thornton raced to first-place finishes in the 200-yard butterfly, 200-yard freestyle, 100-yard breaststroke and 100-yard backstroke, respectively.
In the first individual event of the night, O'Connor broke her own school record from the morning's prelims in the 200 butterfly with an NCAA "B" time standard of 2:00:10.
Westrick followed that up with a time of 1:48.93 to win the 200 free. Later in the meet she held off the competition to win the 50 free in a time of 22.81, just shy of her morning swim of 22.76. Both of her times in the 50 free were NCAA "B" cuts, as she is just the second swimmer in Miami history to break the 23-second barrier, joining school record-holder, '09 graduate Alyson Schmidt.
Clagg kept the Miami winning streak going by touching first in the 100 breaststroke in 1:03.71. Thornton then improved by almost a full second from prelims in the 100 back, where she qualified third, to win the event in a time of 55.16. O'Connor finished third in the event with a time of 56.61.
Clagg was barely touched out for first in the 400-yard IM, racing to second place in time of 4:22.65, less than a tenth of a second behind event-winner Michelle Howell from Denison.
Thornton, Clagg, O'Connor and Westrick also combined to add one more win for the RedHawks as they took first in the 400-yard medley relay with a time of 3:44.40, almost two seconds ahead of their closest competitors.
Craft finished seventh overall on the three-meter board but was best among collegiate divers. The only divers to score better than the Miami sophomore were post-graduate, club divers who compete internationally. On the men's side, Beres finished second overall on the one-meter board behind only Chinese world-class diver Chao He.
Freshman Joe Baumgartner was the top point-scorer for the Miami men, helping the 200-yard freestyle relay team to sixth, the 400-yard medley relay team to eighth and finishing 16th in the 200 free and 17th in the 50 free. For his efforts, Baumgartner added 53 points to the RedHawks' score.
Top finishers for the men's swimmers were sophomore Dan Nemeth in eighth-place in the 50 free and senior Brendan Melling who won the consolation heat for 10th-place overall in the 400 IM. Nemeth also anchored the 200-yard freestyle relay team that finished sixth.
Sophomore Michael Cavanaugh held onto his spot in the 200 fly, dropping more than a half-second to finish 11th with a time of 1:54.61, earning 18 points for Miami.
Freshman Andrew Kilkenny was the biggest mover for the RedHawks, winning the bonus heat to finish 19th in the 400 IM after qualifying as the first alternate and moving into the competition thanks to a scratch by one of the higher qualifiers. Sophomore Mike Kline also improved his position drastically after qualifying 25th in the morning, then winning the bonus heat for 19th place in the 100 back.
After the final event of the night, the Miami women remained in first place with 1334.5 points with Emory their closest rival with 911 points. The RedHawk men are in fourth with 595 points, trailing Emory with 794, Southern Illinois with 816 and first-place Denison with 1364.
The final day of competition begins with swimming prelims at 9 a.m. on Saturday (Dec. 3). Diving prelims will take place at 2 p.m. and finals for swimming and diving start at 6 p.m.
