CARBONDALE, Ill. - Missouri State men's swimming & diving maintained its second-place standing after three days at the Mid-American Conference Championships from Dr. Edward J. Shea Natatorium. The Bears extended their gap over host team Southern Illinois in third place by 7.5 points. However, three-time defending champion Miami Ohio turned its one-point lead from yesterday into a 28.5-point lead with one day of competition remaining. 

The Bears won three silver medals to headline the penultimate day of competition. Senior AJ Huskey, the defending champion in the 400 IM, secured a medal in the event for the fourth straight year with a runner-up time of 3:50.75. Miami (Ohio) sophomore Allen Cotton pulled away to win the event with a time of 3:48.26 to mark the third win for the Redhawks in the event in the last four seasons.

Sophomore Luigi Maciel da Silva also won a silver medal in his first career appearance at the MAC Championships. Maciel da Silva turned a seventh-place prelim time of 54.53 into a team season-best time of 53.10 in the 100-yard breaststroke final.

Ball State's Joey Garberick had the best time in the morning prelims in the 100 breast (52.10) and improved on that in the final with a time of 51.93 to tie the MAC record set by Missouri State's Blair Bish in the 2018 MAC Championships.

Missouri State had one swimmer in the 100-yard butterfly A Final to open the night. Sophomore Chris Bedsole had a near-identical finish from his prelim time (48.01) to his final time of 47.99. Freshman Nadim Elgohary won the B Final in the event (48.22) for a ninth overall finish.

The Bears had three swimmers in the top seven of the 200-yard freestyle led by sophomore Jack Grandy finishing fourth with a time of 1:37.13. Grandy was second in the prelims, but improved that time by .01 seconds in the finals. Sophomore George Holesinger also improved on his prelim time to take sixth in the finals (1:37.71). Right behind Holesinger was junior Reese Hodgins in seventh with a time of 1:38.00. 

Southern Illinois junior Alex Santiago won the 200 free title with a time of 1:36.63, snapping Missouri State's five-year winning streak in the event.

Senior Robert Hill was the highest-placing Bear in the 100-yard backstroke with a fifth-place time of 48.43. MSU had four swimmers participate in the B final that were separated across five spots. Sophomore Alex Boutin finished 11th overall with a time of 49.23, followed by junior Bruno Miranda Guerra in 12th (49.48) and sophomore Lucas Chadwell in 13th (49.73). Freshman Matvei Chesakov, who won silver in the 50-yard freestyle yesterday, finished 15th (49.86).

The Bears snagged one more silver medal to end the night in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Chesakov, Chadwell, Hill and Miranda Guerra set a program record with a time of 1:18.75, just three-quarters of a second off Southern Illinois' time of 1:18.00. The Bears broke the previous school record set at the Sun Belt Championships in 2009.

The fourth and final day of the MAC men's swimming & diving championships commences tomorrow with prelims starting at 10:30 a.m. CT and the final rounds for the remaining events starting at 6:00 p.m. CT.

Day 3 Standings

1.    Miami (Ohio) - 497
2.    Missouri State - 468.5
3.    Southern Illinois - 428.5
4.    UIC - 314
5.    Ball State - 275
6.    Evansville - 170
7.    Valparaiso - 97

Tomorrow's Schedule

Day 4: Saturday, March 9
Prelims: 10:30 a.m. CT (Watch)
Finals: 6:00 p.m. CT (Watch)
- 1,650-yard Freestyle
- 200-yard Backstroke
- 100-yard Freestyle
- 200-yard Breaststroke
- 200-yard Butterfly
- 3-meter Diving
- 400-yard Freestyle Relay