Swimming Results | Diving Results

ROCKWALL, Texas (SMU) – The SMU men’s swimming and diving team, despite winning nine of the 16 events, fell to LSU, 165-134, this weekend at the Rockwall Aquatic Center.

“For the first meet of the second semester, our guys swam pretty well,” said head coach Eddie Sinnott.  “Our depth is lacking a little bit, but we’re working hard.”

The result is a significant improvement on last year’s 185-112 loss to the Tigers.

“We were much better this year than last year,” Sinnott said.

Freshman Christian Scherübl, who represented Austria at the 2012 Summer Olympics, made a splash in his collegiate debut, winning two events and anchoring the first-place 400-yard freestyle relay team.

“He’s been training really hard and he finally got a chance to race,” said Sinnott of Scherübl.  “We’re excited to have him onboard.”

Scherübl won the 200-yard freestyle in a time of 1:39.91 and then cruised to a victory in the 500-yard freestyle, touching the wall in 4:33.56.  The Gratwein, Austria, native then swam the fourth leg for the 400-yard freestyle relay team that ended the meet with a win (3:02.90).

Bartosz Krzyzaniak, Sam Straughan and Ziga Cerkovnik swam the first three legs of the freestyle relay, respectively.

The core of Cerkovnik, Krzyzniak, and Straughan, along with Tyler Rauth, also started the meet with a win in the 200-yard medley relay (1:31.45), giving the Mustangs the sweep in the relays.

Straughan also added two individual first-place finishes.  The junior transfer from Maidenhed University (U.K.) won the 100-yard backstroke (49.39) and the 100-yard butterfly (49.95).

Krzyzaniak also registered a first-place finish individually, touching the wall first in the 200-yard backstroke (1:50.31).  The freshman added a second-place finish, behind teammate Straughan, in the 100-yard backstroke (50.27).

Cerkovnik put together a solid day for the Mustangs, finishing second in the 100-yard freestyle (46.28) and third in the 50-yard freestyle (21.08).  Rauth and Eastman Holloway also recorded second-place finishes.  Rauth finished second in the 200-yard butterfly (1:51.86) and Holloway placed second in the 1,000-yard freestyle (9:42.21).

Freshman Stefan Popov was SMU’s top breaststroker of the meet, placing fourth in both the 100-yard (59.37) and 200-yard (2:04.79) breaststroke.

Diving scores were taken from the Tennessee Diving Invitational preliminary rounds, where both SMU and LSU divers competed.  Devin Burnett swept the diving events, winning the one-meter with a score of 364 and the three-meter with a score of 379.

Burnett went on to place second overall in the finals of the one-meter and third in the three-meter.  Hayden Hodges also delivered top-ten finishes overall, finishing 10th in both events.   

“We’re looking forward to the next two weeks of really hard training,” said Sinnott.  “Then we’ll start getting ready for the championship season.  We’re optimistic.”

The Mustangs return to action on Jan. 16, when they head to College Station for a meet against the Texas A&M Aggies at 7 p.m. CT.