CARBONDALE, Ill. – Paced by individual victories from Pawel Krawczyk and Arthur Cury, Missouri State men's swimming & diving broke the team score deadlock with a big 248-point effort on day two of the Mid-American Conference Championships Thursday night at Shea Natatorium.

MSU jumped to 322 points at the completion of Thursday's finals to claim sole possession of first place over Miami University (Ohio), who sits in second with 260 points. Southern Illinois remains in third with a 218 score while Ball State and Evansville round out the MAC members at 174 and 117 points, respectively.

Krawczyk started the night strong for the Bears, sparking a 1-2-3-4 MSU finish in the 500 freestyle and was led by the Warsaw, Poland native with a 4:20.49 top time. Fellow Bears Antonio Thomas (4:21.02), Sebastian Odent (4:24.88), Jonathan Hill (4:28.36) promptly followed suit to cap an impressive opening race.

The Bears hot start continued in the 200 IM as Arthur Cury (1:47.56) nipped SIU's Adam Cernek in a thrilling finish for MSU's second-straight gold medal. Cury was one of five Bears to collect points in the A-final as Thomas Heye, Michael Hampel, Conner Funke, and Tyler Lewis all placed in the top eight.

Rounding out the individual races, Samuel Senn (20.49) led the Bears' scorers in the 50 freestyle with a bronze medal, with Porter LeVasseur (20.95) completing the A-final swimmers. Senior Jacob Schultz (20.98) landed in the middle B-final competitors for a 12^th place result.  
 
Michael Claunch earned the silver on the 1-meter board with a stellar 297.60 dive while John David Spence garnered fifth at 257.05.

Miami (Ohio) claimed the lone relay race in Thursday night's finale, slipping past the Bears (1:20.97) by less than a second in the 200 freestyle relay.

Friday continues with prelims at 10:30 a.m. and finals at 6:30 p.m. The events for tomorrow are the 100 fly, 400 IM, 200 free, 100 breast, 100 back, 3-meter diving, and the 400 medley relay at the Shea Natatorium in Carbondale, Ill.   
  
For all the latest information on the Missouri State swimming and diving team, visit missouristatebears.com or follow @MoStateSwim on Twitter.