Hamzic makes automatic mark in 200-breaststroke; S&T finishes third at Mizzou

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Zlatan Hamzic's second place finish – and automatic qualifying time in the 200-yard breaststroke – was among the many solid performances recorded by Missouri S&T's swimming team on the final day of the Tiger Invitational at the University of Missouri as it finished in third place.

Hamzic posted a time of 2:00.96 in the finals to earn his runner-up showing as he finished just in back of Missouri's Jowan Qupty, who had a time of 1:59.56. Hamzic cleared the NCAA standard for the event of 2:02.19, the second time he made an automatic cut over the weekend as he was part of S&T's 400-yard medley relay team with Jeff Enge, Andrew Schranck and Sean Deegan that earned the national berth Friday.

S&T also got a third place finish from its 400-yard freestyle relay team of Deegan, Hayden Price, Jacob Dole and Schranck, as that quartet made an NCAA Division II provisional cut time of 3:02.67.

The Miners also got a fourth place finish from Enge in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 1:49.73 and from Dole in the 100-yard freestyle in 46.05 seconds after he posted a 46.04 in the preliminaries. Deegan swam a 46.08 in the morning session, then posted a 46.12 in the finals to take fifth in the 100-freestyle.

Zach Lemons and Andrew Simek each made provisional marks in the finals of the 200-breaststroke, as Lemons placed sixth in 2:03.19 and Simek seventh in 2:05.34. The Miners also got provisional marks from Phil Arve and Alfredo Martinez in the 200-yard butterfly, as Arve had a time of 1:53.53 to come in fifth and Martinez a mark of 1:54.40 to place seventh.

Schranck had the fastest time in the preliminaries of the 200-butterfly of 1:50.49, but did not swim in the finals of the event.

Matt Welsh made a provisional cut in the 1,650-yard freestyle with his time of 16:08.12, putting him in ninth place in the event, while Nate Kamrath did likewise in the 200-backstroke with his mark of 1:53.96. Price also had a provisional time of 46.74 in the 100-freestyle.

Missouri S&T will resume its schedule at the Washington University Invitational on Jan. 14.