Missouri swimming and diving had no trouble on night one of the Mizzou Invitational, scoring 1,009 team points and winning 11 events.
The Tigers put themselves in good position for the rest of the season, as multiple earned qualifying times for the NCAA Championships in March.
Here are takeaways from night one of the three-day invitational:
**Sansoucie explodes**
When the freshmen on the Missouri swim team saw Andrew Sansoucie on Thursday morning, they did not recognize him. The senior butterflier had shaved his beard in preparation for the meet.
“I walked in, they had to do a double-take,” he said.
His shaving paid off. Sansoucie dropped a second off his 100-yard butterfly school record of 45.86, touching the wall in 44.86. His time would have taken third at last season’s NCAA Championships.
Sansoucie initially hoped to go in the 45-second range at the Mizzou Invitational, but his goals changed last week after he went under 47 seconds in a dual meet against Georgia.
Now, after a new best time in his signature event, Sansoucie said he will meet with his coaches to discuss his end-of-season goals.
“I definitely need to reevaluate what I want to do at NCAAs this year,” he said, “because the season is going a lot differently than I perceived, but in a good way.”
**School records shattered**
When Michael Chadwick was a freshman, he came to Missouri as a breaststroker and individual medley swimmer. Since then, the senior has developed into one of the nation’s top sprint freestylers.
Thursday marked a return to his roots.
Chadwick broke Olympian Mack Darragh’s school record in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 1:43.01, a personal best by over a second.
“Definitely encouraging,” he said. “I hope that record doesn’t stand for very long. I think a lot of other guys will break it eventually.”
Chadwick was one of four Missouri swimmers to set a new school record at the meet. Sansoucie and junior Kira Zubar lowered their own records, and senior Nick Davis added his name to the record-board.
Zubar swam the 500-yard freestyle in 4:40.40, breaking her own record by over two seconds. Davis finished the men’s 500-yard race in 4:17.42, a four-second time drop.
**Metzger-Seymour enjoys breakout swim**
Erin Metzger-Seymour was expecting to go fast in her 100-yard butterfly race. She just wasn’t expecting to go as fast as she did.
The junior won the event in —-, a personal best time. Her time is an NCAA provisional qualifying standard, meaning she will be considered for March’s national championship meet.
Last year, Metzger-Seymour’s time would have been fast enough to compete at NCAAs, and she is excited about the prospect of going to the meet as an individual.
“I’m trying not to get my hopes up too high, because you don’t want to be like, ‘Oh, I’m going for sure,’ and then somehow miss it by a little bit,” she said. “But you’ve just got to put the trust in the coaches and know that they’re watching as much as I’m watching it.”
**Relays in good shape**
Missouri qualified for NCAA Championships in both the men’s and women’s 200-yard freestyle and 400-yard medley relays on Thursday.
The men’s 400-yard medley relay team of freshman Daniel Hein, senior Fabian Schwingenschlogl, Sansoucie and Chadwick touched the wall in 3:05.67, easily earning the automatic qualifying standard for the NCAA Championships. In the women’s race, freshman Haley Hynes, senior Katharine Ross, Metzger-Seymour and junior Rachel Hayden touched the wall in 3:32.94, also an automatic qualifying standard.
In the 200-yard freestyle relay, Chadwick, Sansoucie, sophomore Luke Mankus and senior Mitchell Forde teammed up to earn an automatic men’s qualifying standard. On the women’s side, Hayden, Hynes, Maddie Gehrke and Victoria Trost earned a provisional NCAA cut.
Coach Greg Rhodenbaugh was happy with the relay performances, but he still thinks there is room for improvement.
“Our relays were good, but they weren’t great,” he said. “And we’ve got to continue to get better.”
The Tigers begin preliminary races at 10 a.m. Friday.
