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 Sean Smith qualified for the A final in the 100 backstroke. |
March 14, 2008
COLUMBIA, Mo. - The Wayne State men's swimming and diving team performed well in Friday's preliminary round, including setting two school records, at the 2008 NCAA Championships hosted by the University of Missouri S&T.
Wayne State had two swimmers qualify for the "A" final of the 100 backstroke. Cauli Bedran (Rio de Janiero, Brazil), who tied the school record leading off the 200 medley relay on Thursday (50.44), broke it with a fourth-place time of 50.03. Sean Smith (Auburn, Mich./Bay City Western) also came in under the old mark, finishing seventh in 50.40 seconds.
The 800 freestyle relay combination of Sebastian Rzepa (Clinton Twp., Mich./Chippewa Valley), Tiago Oliveira (Raul Soares, Brazil), Matt Leix (Flint, Mich./Southwestern), and Justin Shields (Chesterfield, Mich./Anchor Bay) turned in a second-place time of 6:48.61 in a timed final, breaking the previous WSU record by 2.21 seconds.
In the 100 breaststroke, Christer Tour (Farsta, Sweden) qualified in third place (55.88), while Per Bergstrom (Fagersta, Sweden) finished 25th (58.64)
Leix came in 26th in the preliminary 500 freestyle (4:40.38).
The Warriors are in seventh place through the first two days of competition at the Mizzou Aquatic Center. Friday's finals will begin at 6:00 p.m. ET.
