April 10, 2022

Graphic by Ava Horton

The Missouri women’s and men’s swim and dive teams both placed No. 25 at the Division I NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships at the McAuley Aquatic Center in Atlanta on March 16-19 and March 23-26, respectively.

Highlighting the women’s performance, the 400-yard freestyle relay team of junior Amy Feddersen, senior Megan Keil, sophomore Sierra Smith and fifth-year Sarah Thompson set a school-record time of 3:13.14, finishing No. 12.

The women’s 200-yard medley relay team of junior Meredith Rees, junior Alex Moderski, Thompson and Keil recorded a top-10 school record time of 1:36.27, finishing No. 18.

On the second day of competition, the women’s 200-yard freestyle relay team of Feddersen, Keil, Smith and Thompson were named to the All-American First Team after placing No. 8 and recording a time of 1:27.06, the second-fastest time in school history. The team also received All-American Honorable Mentions in the women’s 400-yard freestyle relay. Rees and Keil received honorable mentions in the 100-yard backstroke and 50-yard freestyle, respectively. 

The following week, the men competed in Atlanta, where senior Jack Dahlgren set a school record with a time of 1:38.85 in the 200-yard backstroke preliminaries.

Dahlgren was named to the All-American First Team in the men’s 200-yard backstroke and received an Honorable Mention in the men’s 200-yard freestyle. Senior Danny Kovac also received honorable mentions in the men’s 100-yard and 200-yard butterfly.

On the first night of competing, the men’s 200-yard medley relay and 800-yard freestyle relay posted times within the top-10 school records.

The team of Dahlgren, Kovac and juniors Ben Patton and Kevin Hammer tied for 23rd place with a time of 1:24.27 in the 200-yard relay, while Dahlgren, senior Jack Dubois and freshmen Calvin Windle and Grant Bochenski took 18th place in the 800-yard relay with a time of 6:17.46.

While the Missouri men and women dropped several spots from last year’s 16th and 18th places, respectively, several athletes set all-time school records, and the relay teams were especially dominant in the rankings. Dahlgren recorded his first individual NCAA podium finish with a sixth-place finish in the 200-yard backstroke finals, and the Tigers had a strong showing in the short distance events across both teams.

With the loss of notable seniors Dahlgren, Kovac, Dubois, Thompson and Keil among others, the Tigers will lose some core talent next season, but stand-out Patton and the relatively young men’s roster will have the opportunity to perform. Similarly, many departing swimmers on the women’s team will allow younger athletes to shine. Next year will bring difficulties, but also many opportunities for head coach Andrew Grevers to train a new roster and capitalize on the talent of new athletes. 

Edited by Riley Gearhart | rgearhart@themaneater.com

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