Miami University
Mid-American Conference Championships
Men's Swimmers Fourth After Day One
3/1/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving
March 1, 2012
OXFORD, Ohio - Hosting the Mid-American Conference Championships for the first time since 2005, Miami posted personal bests in 14 of the team's 18 entries in the morning session and followed it up with strong performances in the evening to stand in fourth place at the end of the first day of competition.
Eastern Michigan leads the meet with 236 points, followed closely by Southern Illinois with 216. Buffalo is in third with 171, just ahead of Miami in fourth with 154 and Missouri State in fifth with 149.
The RedHawks started Thursday night off with a third-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay. The team of freshman Joe Baumgartner, senior Chris Gunnels, and sophomores Michael Cavanaugh and Dan Nemeth sprinted to an NCAA Division I consideration time of 1:20.96, but fell to Southern Illinois and Buffalo, who touched in 1:19.61 and 1:19.67, respectively. The Salukis and Bulls both topped the previous meet record, which had been held by the 1997 team from Toledo at 1:20.07.
In the following event, junior Alex Reinhardt--two-time defending 500-yard freestyle champion--turned in a time of 4:26.88, just over half a second off his career-best, to finish third in the event. Franco Petrone, a freshman from Eastern Michigan, took first with a time of 4:24.34.
The RedHawks made a strong push in the 50-yard freestyle as Nemeth (20.39) and Baumgartner (20.40) finished fourth and fifth, respectively, in the close race where fourth through eighth were separated by just .09 seconds. The two Miami men swam career-best times in the race that Southern Illinois sophomore Juan Arbelaez Osorio won with a time of 20.02.
Senior Jimmy Beres narrowly missed claiming his third-consecutive MAC championship on the one-meter board as he scored 352.35 to finish second behind Eastern Michigan junior Jeff Craig (365.20). Miami juniors Mike Grainger and Chris Hoppler finished sixth and seventh, respectively, in the event.
Buffalo capped off the day's events with another record-breaking relay swim, setting a new MAC Championship and Nixon Aquatic Center record of 3:13.77 in the 400-yard freestyle relay. The Bulls broke their own meet record from a year ago, which was 3:14.98, and the pool record that was set by Oakland in 2007 at 3:16.77.
Friday's portion of the MAC Championships starts with prelims at 11 a.m. with the 400 IM, 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle, 100 breaststroke and 100 backstroke. Three-meter diving prelims will take place between the swimming prelims and final, which begin at 7 p.m. Friday night.
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Players Mentioned
