CARBONDALE, Ill. – Missouri State's men's swimming & diving squad built on its sizable leaderboard margin with a trio of individual titles and a thrilling relay win in the penultimate Mid-American Conference championship session Friday night at Shea Natatorium.

After wrapping the third finals session of the four-day meet, MSU retained its comfortable cushion with 607 points – 80 ahead of runner up Miami University (Ohio). The rest of the standings remained unchanged as Southern Illinois resides in third with a 370 score while Ball State and Evansville slot into the last two spots at 286 and 239, respectively.

The Bears struck gold in the heart of Friday's event order, punctuating the night with three-consecutive podium finishes in the 400 IM, 200 free, and 100 breast.

Senior Antonio Thomas (3:52.13) led a 1-2 MSU effort in the 400 IM, touching the wall with a two-second advantage to claim his first individual championship title of the meet. Tyler Lewis (3:54.97) took silver to complete the Bears' A-final swimmers while James Vaughn and Evan Porter represented in the consolation race.

Arthur Cury continued his championship hot streak, turning in his second gold medal performance in as many days, in the 200 free with a 1:36.71 time. Fellow Bear Pawel Krawczyk (1:37.29) clocked in less than a second later, while Sebastian Odent (1:39.13) and Jonathan Hill (1:39.98) rounded out the top eight.

Michael Hampel (54.55) rattled off the Bears' final individual victory in the 100 breast, inching past teammate Conner Funke (54.73) for the podium and his first MAC championship gold. Senior Samuel Senn tallied his second top-five result in the event with a fourth-place mark.

MSU produced a slew of A-final finishes as Jacob Schultz earned a bronze distinction in the 100 fly while the trio of Conner Ripp, Noah Witzki, and Thomas Heye grabbed 5-6-7 on the 100 back stage.

MSU saved the best for last, with Ripp, Hampel, Schultz and Cury (3:15.34) engineering a comeback relay win for Friday's final prize in the 400 medley relay race, beating the rival RedHawks by five-tenths of a second.
 

?? 400 Medley Relay ??

The #MSUBears team of Ripp, Hampel, Schultz, and Cury rally with the thrilling victory! pic.twitter.com/IorzQpVkIC

— MSU Swimming (@MoStateSwim) March 7, 2020

Saturday concludes championship action with prelims beginning at 10:30 a.m. and finals remaining at a 6:30 p.m. start time.

For all the latest information on the Missouri State swimming and diving team, visit missouristatebears.com or follow @MoStateSwim on Twitter.