Southern Illinois University
MAC Championships (Men)
Salukis in third place at MAC Championships
03/05/2019 | 9:31:00 | Swimming & Diving
OXFORD, Ohio — The Southern Illinois men's swimming and diving team sits in third place after day two at the MAC Championships. Through seven finals events, SIU trails Miami (OH) and Missouri State for first and second by over 100 points.
On the day, Southern collected three top-five finishes. The team also tallied 10 top-10 finishes and 11 advanced to individual finals events.
The Salukis shined in the 50-yard freestyle, 200-IM and one-meter dive.
In the 50-free preliminaries, Tamas Hajtman, Robert Chelberg and Reilly Garman each dropped season-best times to qualify for the A final. Hajtman led the trio with a fifth place finish (20.40) in the final. Closely behind were fellow teammates Chelberg and Garman who claimed sixth and eighth with times of 20.61 and 20.65.
Newcomer Fu Kang and junior Chris Phillips went four-five in the 200-IM prelims (1:49.96 & 1:50.07) to qualify for the top final. Phillips managed to gain the advantage over Kang in the final, as he finished with a mark of 1:50.81 to place sixth. Kang took eighth with a mark of 1:51.42.
Kai Hoffmann-Dussome and Eli Mercado have been a dynamic diving duo all season long and continued their success in the one-meter dive. The pair earned a trip to the A final, as Mercado placed fourth (267.10) and Hoffmann-Dussome placed sixth (264.50) in the prelims round. In the finals, Hoffmann-Dussome dove to a fourth place finish with a score of 273.90. Mercado tabbed a score of 260.65 to finish eighth.
Junior swimmer Kevin Kluge was the lone Saluki to qualify for the A final in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:32.38. He swam a similar time of 4:32.66 in the final to take eighth. In his first MAC Championships appearance, Zheng Yang Yeap won the B final and went ninth overall with a season-best time of 4:30.87.
The final event of day two was the 200-yard freestyle relay and the quartet of Hajtman, Garman, Chelberg and Yeap teamed up to a third-place finish with a season-best time of 1:20.23. Through two days, Southern has took third in all three relay events.
SIU is back in action tomorrow for day three at the MAC Championships, which will feature six finals events. Prelims will begin at 9:30 a.m. CT and finals will start at 5:30 p.m. CT.
Along with following the MAC Championship Central page, follow @SIU_SwimDive on twitter, @SIUSwimandDive on Instagram and Saluki Swimming and Diving on Facebook for the latest updates on the Salukis.
DAY TWO STANDINGS
1. Miami (OH) - 326
2. Missouri State - 323
3. Southern Illinois - 214
4. Ball State - 126
5. Evansville - 117
Players Mentioned
