Missouri swim team members cheer on their teammates during the Men’s 500 yard freestyle on Friday, Nov. 1, 2024 at the Mizzou Aquatic Center. (MICHAEL BANIEWICZ/ROCK M NATION)
While the Tigers were swept in their second straight meet, they walked away with lots of to be proud of.
The Missouri Tigers fell again this week, this time at the hands of the top-20 rated Texas A&M Aggies. Both teams lost 168-132. While a sweep isn’t what Missouri was striving for, both the men and women walked away with season bests, personal bests, and a ton of confidence amidst a tough training regimen.
It’s hard to be mad at the result when it all looks so promising.
Speaking to Alex Ochsenbein, he was also proud of the team’s performance.
“We came off a rough loss last week to Purdue, and we wanted to, you know, fight as much as we could this year,” Ochsenbein, a redshirt freshman, said. “Texas A&M is a really good team, so to compete with them like we did today is a big, big statement.”
Missouri head coach Andrew Grevers echoed this sentiment in his post-meet comments, per MUTigers.com. “We were big underdogs coming into the meet and we knew we had a big challenge… Our athletes’ attitudes were amazing, on top of numerous wonderful performances.”
MEN’S MEET
Texas A&M jumped out to a hot start, winning the first five events. A Tiger win didn’t come until freshman Philipp Peschke recorded a season-best time of 1:36.55 in the 200 yard freestyle, the 6th event of the day. Not only was the win an accomplishment, but two other swimmers Calvin Windle, who placed 2nd, and Seth Cannon also hit season-best times.
It was also Peschke’s first individual win of his young career.
Grant Bochenski then followed up the men’s win with a first place finish in the following event, the 100 yard backstroke, with a time of 46.46. While it wasn’t a season best for Bochenski, the third place finisher, John Watson, had a season best of 49.23 seconds.
The Missouri men kept the momentum rolling with a 1-2 finish in the 100 yard breaststroke. All swimmers recorded season-best times, with event winner Logan Ottke dropping his time by over three seconds.
Jan Zubik continued his own personal winning streak with a time of 1:42.60 in the 200 yard butterfly. Not only was it a big win, but another Tiger season-best! He is just now two seconds shy off his personal best, 1:40.95, which sits at second all-time in Mizzou’s 200 fly history.
After a rough 50 free placement — the Tigers finished 4th, 5th & 6th —and the first break of the day, Grant Bochenski put the Tigers back in the win column with a strong 100 yard freestyle time of 43.68. Bochenski was just shy of his season-best, but his fellow Tiger Darden Tate recorded one.
Ochsenbein followed up with another Missouri win, finishing with a time of 1:57.06. All three Tiger swimmers (Logan Ottke & Matthew Mortenson) in the event swam a season-best, continuing the trend.
Ochsenbein spoke about how his results were a personal accomplishment after a tough week of training after the Purdue meet.
“Just finding a race plan, and we’re in a rough training block, so pushing through lactic acid and soreness is our main goal right now,” he said. “To do that in a race and come back as fast as I did to out touch, was a huge turning point for us in that meet.”
A Missouri and Texas A&M swimmer look at their times on the scoreboard during Missouri’s swim and dive meet against Texas A&M on Friday, Nov. 1, 2024 at the Mizzou Aquatic Center in Columbia. (MICHAEL BANIEWICZ/ROCK M NATION)
Jan Zubik then won the 100 yard butterfly, sealing another win and season-best. Matthew Judkins also recorded a season fastest with a time of 48.05. He finished fourth in the event, while Jaden Pospishil took second.
Missouri was neck-and-neck with the Aggies at the second break, but no further wins caused them to hit a bit of a plateau. At meet’s end, the men won a season-high eight events.
Moving onto diving, the Missouri men found continued personal success, though points-wise it helped the Aggies extend its lead.
Collier Dyer led the team once again with a second place finish in the 1 and 3 meter springboard events. His score of 407.18 was 30.98 points higher from the Purdue meet and is good enough for 5th place all-time in the Missouri history books.
Derek Colbert and Tommaso Zannella also recorded season bests in the 3 meter. Colbert scored a 308.63 and Zannella a 296.78.
These two didn’t just record season bests in the 3 meter, but 1 meter as well. Colbert notched a score of 295.35 and Zannella a 298.43.
WOMEN’S MEET
The women didn’t have the same amount of total wins as the men, but kept things closer with their depth and still set records of their own.
Sophomore Lina Bank, an absolute stud in the water and a breaststroke phenom of sorts, continued to dominate.
Her 100 time was a 59.81, enough to notch her a personal best and fourth all-time in the 100 yard breaststroke record books. She sits just 0.30 seconds behind Katrina Brathwaite for third place.
Bank’s win was the only women’s win heading into the first break, but Bank’s domination wasn’t stopping.
She also set a season-best in the 200 breaststroke as she dropped 2.55 seconds for a time of 2:12.17. Her time is also just .02 seconds shy of cracking into the top 10 in Missouri’s history books.
The women also secured a win in the 200 yard backstroke thanks to the work of Abbey Taute, who swam a 1:56.40, dropping .90 seconds off her previous best time this season. Three other Tigers also recorded season-best times in the event.
A Missouri swimmer competes during Missouri’s swim and dive meet against Texas A&M on Friday, Nov. 1, 2024 at the Mizzou Aquatic Center in Columbia. (MICHAEL BANIEWICZ/ROCK M NATION)
On the diving side of the pool, the women also found success.
Mia Henniger improved her 1 meter score by 7.72 points to a total of 254.1. Each week she has continued to increase her score, and while she finished 7th in the event, it is still a major personal win.
Megan Jolly took second place in the 1 meter with a score of 282.00.
A big win for the Tigers came from Gaby Carmona in the 3 meter with a number one finish thanks to a score of 306.15, which was also the first of her career. Megan Jolly notched points for Missouri again with a fourth place finish and a score of 283.88.
SEASON BESTS
As mentioned – quite frequently – above, Missouri notched more than a handful of season and personal bests. However, not all resulted in Tigers wins. To show just how much it happened, all other times not from wins are listed below:
Men’s 50 Free
Ethan Vance drops .08 seconds
Alex Schwartz drops .03 seconds
Men’s 500 Free
Conner Boatright drops .74 seconds
Men’s 1000 Free
Conner Boatright drops 13.35 seconds. This is HUGE
Jibran Himsieh drops .18 seconds for season best
Thomas Joswiak drops 21.27 seconds. Thought that 13 was good? Think AGAIN
Men’s 200 Backstroke
Zubik drops 3.04 seconds
Women’s 50 Free
Sierra Smith drops .11 seconds
Francesca Smith drops .42 seconds
Grace Hanson drops .24 seconds
Avery Stein drops .82 seconds
Women’s 100 Free
Zara Zallen drops .03 seconds
Sierra Smith drops .09 seconds
Katie Kuehn drops .11 seconds
Avery Stein drops 1.37 seconds
Ella Hansen drops .96 seconds
Women’s 200 Free
Piper McNeil drops .78 seconds
Abbey Taute drops .08 seconds
Women’s 500 Free
Zoe Schneider drops .21 seconds
Women’s 1000 Free
Gresik drops 5.27 seconds
Gleason drops 11.96 seconds
Schneider drops 6.51 seconds
Drexler drops 2.77 seconds
Women’s 100 Fly
Paige Striley drops .67 seconds
Grace Hanson drops .21 seconds
Ashley Gill drops .29 seconds
Women’s 200 Fly
Taylor Williams drops .57 seconds
Maeve DeYoung drops 4.4 seconds
Danielle Gleason drops 2.33 seconds
Kylee Sullivan drops 5.8 seconds
Women’s 400 Individual Medley
Peyton Drexler drops .56 seconds
Piper McNeil drops 1.28 seconds
Katie Gresik drops 3.78 seconds
Zoe Schneider drops .13 seconds
Zoe Winter drops 2.71 seconds
TALENTED FRESHMEN
A constant standout amongst this Tiger team is their new talent.
Katie Gresik’s 1000 freestyle time of 9:50.05 already puts her at third all-time in the event. On top of that, fellow freshman Danielle Gleason’s time of 9:50:81 slots her at fourth all-time.
While not all freshmen are winning each event they’re in, they continue to improve week after week.
For example, newcomer Luke Nebrich recorded a time of 20.14 in the 50 yard freestyle. His time from the intrasquad meet is still faster at 19.81; however, it is his second fastest time ever recorded in the pool.
After redshirting his freshman year, Alex Ochsenbein has been a huge addition to the squad. He collected his first individual win in the 200 breaststroke, swimming a time of 1:43:32.
As Coach Andrew Grevers mentioned earlier in the season, it is one of the most promising classes and this entire group has the potential to make major waves.
MOVING FORWARD
Missouri will have a two week break before heading to Athens for the Georgia Invitational.
Speaking to Alex Ochsenbein, he thought highly of the team’s performance and their momentum moving forward.
“Yeah. I mean, we’re coming off like there were a lot of good swims today, a lot of you know, personal bests, lifetime bests,” said Ochsenbein. “So, to build on those, recognize those set up for good matches in two weeks.”
“We’re certainly taking steps to close in on the top programs in the country and showing that Mizzou belongs in that group,” Grevers said.
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