Men Make Statement on Day 1 of MAC Championships

Thursday morning was the start of the Men's MAC Championships at Eastern Michigan. Here is a "short" recap of Day 1:

The finals session began with the 200 free relay. Like the women, the men have been waiting anxiously for several days for the meet to begin. After a very solid preliminary session this morning, we knew that great things could happen if all of the pieces fell into place. The relay team of Simon Proudfoot, Jared Heine, Andrew Tamchyna, and Ryan Smrekar placed 2nd overall and broke the school with a time of 1:21.93!

The first individual event of the day was the 500 free. Freshmen Zach Rice had an outstanding morning swim that qualified him 9th heading into finals. Senior Connor Vander Zalm qualified 8th with a lifetime best 4:32.94. Both men added at night, but were able to carry some of the momentum gained by the performances on the relay.

The 200 IM and 50 free quickly followed. Senior Zach Ruske broke his own school record in the prelims when he posted a time of 1:50.22. Zach finished 4th overall during finals. Freshman Josh Meints qualified 5th, but made a tremendous push during the last 50 tonight to finish 2nd overall with a time of 1:51.28. In the 50 free, Jared Heine (20.66) and Simon Proudfoot (20.86) finaled and took 5th and 8th respectively. The team was represented by Ryan Smrekar (21.16), Andrew Tamchyna (20.99), and Matt Hogan (20.96) in the consolation final.

The 1-meter diving competition came next. Sophomore Colin Patrican dove his way to a 3rd place finish after a tough battle this evening. Junior Kenny Rhoades finished 4th overall after qualifying first during prelims. This was the best performance by Buffalo divers at the MAC Championships in a very long time!

The last event of the evening was the 400 medley relay...and it was worth the wait! Freshman Matt Schwippert led off with a school record leg, swimming to a time of 48.12! Josh Meints followed with a breaststroke split of 55.69. The final 2 legs saw a head-to-head battle with Eastern Michigan and Missouri State. Freshman Cory Zorsch (49.10) and sophomore Jared Heine (44.25) fought to the end, placing 3rd overall and knocking 4 full seconds off of the previous school record!!!! Their time of 3:17.16 was 8-hundredths behind Eastern Michigan and 14-hundredths behind Missouri State. It was an amazing race, full of energy and excitement...a great way to end the evening!