Split squad finishes 8th, 9th

The IU men's swimming and diving team faced stiff competition this weekend at the Texas Invitational in Austin, Tex. and the Miami Invitational in Oxford, Ohio. The top eleven swimmers competed in Texas against many ranked teams where they tied for ninth with Texas Christian University with 93 points. The Texas Aggies won the meet with 721 points. The remainder of the Hoosier squad and the diving team competed in Miami, and finished eighth in a field of thirteen with 489 points. Kenyon College won the meet with a score of 2,209.5 points. \nAt both invites, the competition was fierce, which led the Hoosiers to put in many season best performances.\nThe most impressive performance of the weekend came from the diving team who went 2-3-4-5-6 in the finals on the one-meter at Miami. Junior Marc Carlton placed second with a score of 328.15, while freshmen Brian Mariano and Ryan Fagan came in third and fourth with scores of 283.10 and 281.28 respectively. Junior Alex Burns followed closely behind finishing fifth with a score of 281.05 points, and senior Adam Hazes placed sixth scoring 274.35 points. In the preliminaries of the one-meter event, Carlton placed first, Mariano placed second, Hazes placed third, and Fagan placed fourth. But the divers did not compete in the one-meter finals because they had to head back to Bloomington.\n"I thought they did some great stuff," coach Jeff Huber said. "I think our guys have returned home really feeling like a lot of their hard work is starting to pay off. We did some good things, but we still need to do better to do well at the Big Ten's." \nSophomore Richard Bryant led the way for the Hoosiers at the Texas Invite by placing seventh in the finals of the 1650-yard freestyle event with a career best time of 15:36.39, and placed eighth in the finals of the 500 free with a time of 4:29.32. Bryant also swam a time of 1:40.81 in the 200 free placing 19th overall in the event.\nSenior Dave Schulze placed 11th overall in the 200-yard breaststroke with a season best time of 2:01.83 at the Texas Invite. Schulze's time was only six tenths of a second short of an NCAA B cut time. Also in Texas, sophomore Murph Halasz swam a time of 1:50.48 placing 15th in the 200 fly. Schulze and Halasz were joined by juniors Matt Leach and Dale Ramsy in the 200 medley relay where they swam a season best time of 1:31.76 placing 11th. In the 400 medley relay, Leach, Schulze, and Halasz were joined by junior Claes Andersson where they also finished 11th with a season best time of 3:20.88. \nThe Hoosier sprinting force of Ramsy, Andersson, junior Mike Payne, and sophomore Nicolas Burgess placed 15th in the 400 free relay with a time of 3:06.42.\nAt the Miami meet, several Hoosiers also bettered their season best times in both individual and relay events. \nFreshman Hank Baldwin had a good showing in the breaststroke events placing 13th in the 200 breast and 14th in the 100 breast with times of 2:10.52 and 59.59 Sophomore Niles Madison beat his season best time in the 200-yard backstroke by two seconds finishing 11th in the event. \nThe Hoosier 'A' relay placed ninth overall while the 'B' relay finished 12th in the 800-yard free relay. The 'A' relay team consisting of Baldwin, junior Adam Goff, and sophomores Brian Ellsworth and Temujin Gold swam a time of 7:06.73, while the 'B' team of Madison, freshman Blake Wallace, and sophomores Jonathan Burgess and David Doerr swam a time of 7:17.88 respectively. Burgess, Goff, Wallace, and Madison teamed up to swim in the 200 free relay placing 11th in the finals with a time of 1:26.89. Wallace, Baldwin, Burgess, and Goff finished 12th in the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:37.27 and 10th in the 400 free relay with a time of 3:10.42. \nThe Hoosiers will return to the pool in the new year on Jan. 11 at 1 p.m. in a dual meet at Ohio State. The diving team will next compete Jan. 7-12 when they host the America's Cup Diving Meet at the Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatic Center.