MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — If Saint Mary's University swimming and diving coach had any fears that
Mark Ross (Dubuque, Iowa) might suffer from stage fright during his first Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championships, the freshman quickly put those fears to rest.
Ross, swimming in the fourth event of the day, knocked five seconds off his season-best time in placing 11th in the preliminaries of the 200 IM during the first day of the MIAC's three-day event Thursday at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center.
And he was just warmed up.
Ross knocked another two seconds off his previous-best time, finishing 10th in the 200 IM in school-record time of 1:59.52.
It was the first of four school marks that Ross would be a part of, as the freshman teamed with
John Fox (Winona, Minn.),
Tim Tysk (St. Paul, Minn.) and
Tom Walsh (Prior Lake, Minn.) to shatter a pair of relay school records. The foursome shaved nearly 19 seconds off the previous mark in finishing sixth with a time of 3:35.98, while adding a school-record time of 1:28.20 — 10 seconds faster than the previous mark — to finish sixth in the 200 freestyle relay. Ross' lead-off backstroke time of 26.33 in the 400 IM also broke the school's 100 backstroke record.
Fox and Tysk also turned in solid performances in the 50 freestyle, with Fox clocking a time of 21.72 to finish ninth, while Tysk was 11th in 21.84.
“It was a great first day for us,” said SMU coach
Eric Lindquist. “We've had 100 percent season-best times on both the men's and women's side, which is amazing. Hopefully we can keep it up for two more days.”
