Swim Bears Place Third at MAC Championships

CARBONDALE, Ill. – The Missouri State men's swimming and diving team garnered seven all-conference citations while recording a third-place finish at the Mid-American Conference Championships here Saturday evening.

"Although the final result was not what we wanted, I felt like the effort was good tonight to finish things off," head coach Dave Collins said. "We had a lot of performances to be proud of. I am especially proud of our seniors for their commitment to our program. This is a special group that has done so much for the team over the last four years."

Overall, the Bears finished third with a four-day accumulated team total of 688 points. Miami (Ohio) was the team champions with a total of 823 points. Championship host Southern Illinois placed second with 727 points.

Dylan Moffatt was named MVC Swimmer of the year after garnering two individual titles in the 500 and 1,650 freestyle in addition to a third-place finish in the 400 IM.

Moffatt, Pawel Krawczyk, AJ Huskey, Brunno Suzuki, Robbie Hill, and Jonathan Hill garnered first-team All-MAC honors. While Tyler Lewis and Arthur Cury were named second-team All-MAC.

Before the final session, Krawczyk was awarded the MAC Outstanding Senior Award, which honors athletic and academic excellence. It marked the fourth-consecutive year that a Bear received the award. Krawczyk grabbed six MAC individual golds and three MAC relay golds throughout his career while carrying a 3.90 GPA while double-majoring in computer science and mathematics.

Moffatt dominantly started the Bears' night as he blew away the field to win the 1,650 freestyle with a school, conference, and pool record with a time of 14:55.60. The previous record was held by former Bear Antonio Thomas (14:56.02), who achieved the mark at the 2017 MAC Championships. It was the second-consecutive MAC title in the event for Moffatt. Jonathan Hill was impressive as well as the Kansas City product clocked a 15:40.82 in his first 1,650 freestyle action since March 6, 2020.

"It was a great achievement for me," Moffatt said. "I put in a lot of work to get to this point. It will bring us more confidence for the future and defending my title in the 1,650 while throwing down a great time was amazing."

In the 100 freestyle A finals it was Bruno Guerra clocked a 44.99 to take fifth place while Cury placed second in the 100 freestyle B finals with a time of 45.04.

Senior Michael Hampel spearheaded the MSU fleet in the 200 breaststroke A finals by recording a fourth-place finish (1:59.83). Following Hampel was Drew Watts in sixth (2:00.62) and Nick Schuster in seventh (2:01.43).

Suzuki continued his winning ways with a victory in the 200 breaststroke B finals with a time of 2:01.06.

The 200 butterfly A final was a barnburner as Yevhen Khrypunov (1:44.30) edged out Krawczyk (1:44.72) by just .42 seconds. Huskey (1:46.13) and Lewis (1:47.91) followed in fourth and fifth sequentially.

James Vaughn won the 200 butterfly B finals in impressive fashion by posting a time of 1:50.95.

Seniors John David Spence and Trevor Fischer dived for the final time in their collegiate career in the 3-meter A finals. Spence posted a score of 291.85 to place fourth while Fischer took seventh with 249.05 points.

The Bears finished the championships with a third-place performance in the 400 freestyle relay as Guerra, Suzuki, Cury, and Krawczyk logged a time of 2:58.65.

The MVC Championships conclude the 2021-22 slate for the Missouri State swimming and diving program.

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

Team Standings (FINAL)

1, Miami (Ohio)	823
2. Southern Illinois	727
3. Missouri State	688
4. Ball State	428.5
5. Evansville	354
6. Valparaiso	191.5

#BearsUnite

Swim Bears Place Third at MAC Championships

Players Mentioned

Arthur Cury

Trevor Fischer

Michael Hampel

Jonathan Hill

Pawel Krawczyk

Tyler Lewis

Dylan Moffatt

John David Spence

James Vaughn

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