Miami University
Mid-American Conference Championships
Miami Qualifies 13 Swims For Friday Finals
3/2/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving
March 2, 2012
OXFORD, Ohio - Senior Brendan Melling led Miami with a second-place swim in the Friday morning qualifying session of the Mid-American Conference Championships as the RedHawks qualified 13 swims for the evening finals.
Melling, in search of his first MAC title, turned in a career-best time of 3:55.57 in the 400-yard IM, an improvement of more than a second from his previous best. Defending champ, Eastern Michigan senior Troy Esentan qualified in the top spot with a time of 3:53.14. Miami junior Alex Reinhardt also qualified in the championship heat with an eighth-place and personal-best time of 4:00.87.
Junior Anderson Whipp had a career-best swim in the 100-yard breaststroke to qualify fifth in a time of 56.02. Whipp's previous best time was 56.44, set a year ago with a fourth-place finish in the 2011 MAC Championships. The top seed in the event is Buffalo junior Josh Meints, who swam it in 54.94.
Senior captain Chris Gunnels swam a personal-best of his own, touching the wall in 49.81 to qualify sixth in the 100-yard backstroke. Eastern Michigan junior Jacob Hanson, who won the event a year ago, gave the Eagles their second top qualifier of the morning with a time of 47.88.
The MAC Championships continue throughout the day with three-meter diving prelims set to begin at 2 p.m. followed by finals for swimming and the consolation final for the three-meter at 7 p.m.
--MURedHawks.com--
Players Mentioned
