Ochitwa Hits 51.3 100 Fly, Hopkin Blasts 21.9 50 Free At Mizzou Invite

2018 Mizzou Invitational

• November 15-18, 2018
• Columbia, Missouri
• Mizzou Aquatic Center
• Meet Schedule
• Live Results
• Results also on Meet Mobile

Women’s Events

Two swims really stood out at this morning’s preliminaries on the women’s side: Mizzou’s Annie Ochitwa in the 100 fly and Arkansas’ Anna Hopkin in the 50 free

Ochitwa, a senior who was 8th at NCAAs in this event last season, clocked in a time of 51.37 for the top seed in the 100 fly, putting her 3rd in the country so far this season. This was her 4th fastest swim ever, as she holds a PB of 51.02 from the 2016 NCAAs where she was 9th (would’ve been 4th if she was in the A-final).

Courtney Vincent of San Diego State registered a new best in taking 2nd, clocking 52.25 to improve her 52.41 from the 2018 Mountain West Conference Championships. Hopkin also swam this event, qualifying 3rd into the final in a personal best time of 52.61.

Hopkin is a native of Great Britain, previously competing for the University of Bath, and thus hadn’t started racing yards until this season. Her previous best in the 100 fly was a 54.59 from Arkansas’ meet against Mizzou and Kentucky.

In the 50 free, Hopkin once again improved upon her best time of 22.25 from that meet in 21.94, becoming just the third woman sub-22 this season. Ky-lee Perry of NC State was 21.80 this morning at the IU Invite to overtake Abbey Weitzeil‘s 22.04, and Mallory Comerford equalled Hopkin’s time there in 21.94.

Ochitwa qualified 2nd in the event in 22.23, tying her fastest swim since 2016 (also went 22.23 once in 2017, once in 2018), and her Mizzou teammate Sarah Thompson was just .04 off her best time for 3rd in 22.34.

Kylie Dahlgren of Mizzou had her 2nd fastest swim ever to take the top spot in the 200 IM by three seconds in 1:57.23, having been her fastest ever (1:56.55) at this meet last year, while Bailee Nunn of Drury was 2nd in 2:00.29.

Peyton Palsha of Arkansas was just one of two non-Mizzou swimmers to make the ‘A’ final of the women’s 500, leading the field in a time of 4:44.46. She’s been as fast as 4:43.05, and 2nd seed Courtney Evensen (4:44.91) did her best time of 4:42.62 here last year. Behind Evensen, the next fastest qualifier was over four seconds back, where her Mizzou teammate Samantha Porter broke 4:50 for the first time in 4:49.18.

Men’s Events

On the men’s side, Mizzou took the top seed in three out of four events, with BYU post-grad Payton Sorenson the only non-Tiger leading an event.

Sorenson put up a time of 19.43 in the men’s 50 free, just two-tenths off his best from the 2016 Texas Invite, while Mizzou senior Mikel Schreuders was next fastest in 19.45 to improve his PB of 19.55 from this meet last year. Coming the day that would’ve been the fastest time in the NCAA, but we’ve seen a few faster times at the other invites this morning, including a 19.29 from NC State’s Nyls Korstanje.

Caleb Hicks (19.69) and Luke Mankus (19.90) were also under 20 seconds for Mizzou, with Hicks doing it for the first time (best was 20.15 from 2017 Mizzou Invite).

Junior Micah Slaton (46.31) led a group of six Tigers who made the ‘A’ final in the 100 fly, with freshman Danny Kovac (46.46), and junior Daniel Hein (46.48), along with Mankus (46.85) and Hicks (47.15), all earning best times in 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th overall. 4th went to Daniel Ramirez (46.60) swimming unattached.

Freshman Jack Dahlgren dropped over three seconds from his best time to take the top spot in the men’s 500, slashing his 4:22.96 all the way down to 4:19.67, while his teammate Giovanny Lima was only about a half second off his best in 4:19.91.

The best times for Mizzou kept rolling in the 200 IM, as Nick Alexander improved his 1:44.38 from the 2018 SECs in 1:43.74 for the #1 seed. That swim is under what it took to qualify for NCAAs last season, and also ranks him 4th in the country so far this year. Andreas Vazaios was 1:42.44 last weekend, while Shaine Casas was 1:43.06 last night at Art Adamson and Caio Pumputis was 1:43.70 this morning at Georgia Tech.

The Tigers took the top-4 spots in the event, with senior Alex Walton (1:44.58) 2nd, Kovac (1:46.33) 3rd and senior Anthony Ashley (1:47.17) 4th.