Miami (OH) Invite - Day Two

Oakland

Sophomore Anders Jensen and senior Agnes Solan both hit the NCAA B cut in the 100-yard backstroke (48.71, 55.39, respectively) for the Oakland University men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams on day two of the Miami University Invitational, Friday night.  The Golden Grizzlies hit NCAA B cuts in the men’s and women’s 400 medley relays, won five events and notched season-best times in 12 of the 14 events on the day.
 
In the team scoring, on the men’s side, Oakland has scored 930 points and leads Wright State by 77 while Denison is third with 816.5.  On the women’s side, Miami University has 1218 points followed by Florida Gulf Coast with 748 and Emory with 741.  Oakland is sixth with 509 points and is less than 70 points behind Denison and Illinois.
 
“I’m really proud of the team right now,” said head coach Pete Hovland.  “We struggled this morning in the pre-lims and I just told the kids that they were going to have to work really hard to turn it around.  They showed up tonight for the finals very focused and performed extremely well.  We just have to come back tomorrow with the same kind of focus.”
 
For the men, Jensen, sophomore Scott Yarbrough, freshman Alex Aceino and senior Mike Templeton swam an NCAA B cut time of 3:20.73 to win the 400 medley relay.  On the opening leg, a 100 back, Jensen lowered his B time to 48.67.  Individual victories came from Jensen in the 100 back (48.71) and 200 butterfly (1:49.01) and Templeton in the 200 freestyle (1:39.82).
 
In the 100 back, Templeton finished second with the seventh fastest time in OU history at 50.21.  Runner-up performances came from senior Pat Downing in the 200 free (1:40.29) and Yarbrough in the 100 breaststroke (57.03).
 
For the women, freshmen Alyssa Busch and Sandra Czerska, sophomore Johanna Gustafsson and Solan swam 3:45.95 to place second in the 400 medley relay.  It hit the NCAA B Cut and was the second fastest time in school history, missing the record by 86/100th of a second.  Busch swam the opening leg, a 100 back, in 56.76, the fifth fastest time in OU history.
 
Czerska swam 2:00.99 to win the 200 fly, moving her season record in the fly events to 9-0.  It was the second fastest time in school history and missed the B cut by 30/100th of a second.  Solan’s B cut in the 100 back placed her second, just 19/100th of a second behind the winner.
 
The Golden Grizzlies had two other additions to the top 10 list.  Gustafsson swam the fourth fastest 100 breast (1:03.97) to place sixth while Jade Evink was eighth in the 100 back at 58.40, the 10th fastest in OU history.
 
The divers competed at the Eastern Michigan Invite and three top 10 finishes.  Junior Chelsea Oates led the way scoring 550.40 points to finish in third on the three-meter board.  Cracking the top 10 as well was sophomore Marcella Barretta on the three-meter (7th – 476 pts) and freshman David Craycraft on the one-meter board (8th – 445.57).
 
Live results for every session will be available at www.MURedHawks.com.  Live streaming video will be available only for the Saturday night session at http://all-access.cbssports.com/player.html?code=mioh.