Men’s swimming and diving team has three champs and stands in second-place at 2006 MIAA Championships
With three first-place finishes in tonight’s second day of action, the Olivet College men’s swimming and diving team has narrowed the gap between first- and second-place at the 2006 Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) Championships at Jenison High School. The Comets have 353 points and are only seven points behind Hope College.
With three first-place finishes in tonight's second day of action, the Olivet College men's swimming and diving team has narrowed the gap between first- and second-place at the 2006 Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) Championships at Jenison High School. The Comets have 353 points and are only seven points behind Hope College.
Olivet's 200-yard medley relay team of Ananta Fetters (Fennville/Holland), Dustin Meisner (Temperance/Erie Mason), Mitch Powers (Kalamazoo/Central) and Koji Takahashi (Etobicoke, Ontario/Silverthorn CI) took first-place with a school record time of 1:35.65, which edged Hope by .03 seconds. Prior to this win, the Comets had never won a relay in school history.
Yury Bylina (Minsk, Belarus) brought home first-place in the 400-yard individual medley with a NCAA Championships provisional and school record time of 4:10.32. Fetters kept the winning streak going, finishing in first-place in the 100-yard butterfly at 52.18 seconds.
Takahashi, Meisner and Brian Johnson (Lansing/Eastern) were fourth, fifth and 11th respectively, in the 100 butterfly. In the 200-yard freestyle, Igor Rasula (Belgrade, Serbia) clocked-in with a school record time of 1:44.63 to place fifth. Also placing in the 200 freestyle were Brian Jaffee (Bowling Green, Ohio), eighth (1:45.45); and Jason Wheatley (Portage/Central), 12th (1:47.00).
Meisner led an Olivet 2-3-5 finish in the 100-yard breaststroke. His time of 57.79 seconds qualified him provisionally for the NCAA Championships. Finishing in third was Brian Key (Phoenix, Ariz./Brophy Prep) at 59.58 seconds, followed by Ben Guins (Lansing/Eastern) in fifth at 1:01.00. Andy Williams (Fenton) placed 10th in the 100 breaststroke (1:05.31).
In the 100-yard backstroke, the Comets were third, fourth and fifth with the order being Fetters, :54.88; Powers, :55.24; and Johnson, :55.28. In the morning prelims, Fetters broke the school record with a time of 54.47 seconds. Juan Aguirre (Queretaro, Mexico) and Paul Riha (East Grand Rapids) gained eighth-and 12th-place finishes, respectively in the 100 backstroke.
The 800-yard freestyle relay team of Bylina, Jaffee, Rasula and Takahashi placed fourth in a school record time of 7:03.50.
The final day of action begins tomorrow morning with preliminaries at 10 a.m. with finals slated for a 6 p.m. start.