COMPLETE RESULTS

FORT WORTH, Texas (SMU) - The SMU men's swimming and diving team won seven individual events, while sweeping both diving disciplines, but narrowly fell to TCU, 152-148, on Wednesday evening at the University Recreation Center.

"It was an extremely exciting meet," head coach Eddie Sinnott said. "We fell behind early, fought back and took a lead and then it came down to the last relay and we came up a little short. We did some things really well and we did some things poorly, that's what these early season meets are all about, identifying what we need to work on to get better."

Bryce Klein led the diving efforts for SMU, posting NCAA Zone qualifying scores in both the 1- and 3-meter. The junior posted a 358.72 in 3-meter, and a 343.65 in the 1-meter in his first collegiate competition since the 2014 American Athletic Conference championship. Senior Parker Meinecke also posted a qualification score and was second in the 1-meter with a 301.80. Classmate Daniel Pitts was the event runner-up in the 3-meter at 317.55.

Head diving coach Jim Stillson praised Klein's efforts despite taking the 2014-15 season off.

"Bryce did a great job, he looks a little bit rusty, but he stepped up and won both events and got his NCAA Zone score on both boards and that's my expectation of him.

"A big upside was that Parker Meinecke also stepped up and got his Zone score on 1-meter, and Dan Pitts was just a few points off those scores. Getting those Zone scores early is huge, now they know their season isn't going to end until at least two weeks after conference so their mentality changes and the pressure's off. Overall, I really didn't expect to go 1-2-3 against this team, but I'm really proud of all the guys, they did a tremendous job."

Sophomore and reigning AAC Swimmer of the Year Christian Scherubl won a team-leading three events for the Mustangs, outpacing the competition in the 100-, 200- and 500-yard freestyles. In the 200 distance, Scherubl out-touched TCU's Tommy Thach by .02 seconds for the win, and he came from behind in the 100 with a 23.70 split to give the Mustangs nine points toward the team total.

Backstroke specialist Bartosz Krzyzaniak swept both distances, posting times over two seconds faster than his closest competition in each, and senior Sam Straughan was also a multi-event winner posting the top times in the 50-yard freestyle and the 100-yard butterfly.

Four other Mustangs earned runner-up honors in individual events, including newcomers Lucas Schenke (1,000 freestyle) and Brandon Norman (200 back), as well as Stefan Popov in the 200 breast and Ziga Cerkovnik in the 100 breast.

In relay action, SMU finished second in the 200-yard medley event to start the night as Krzyzaniak, Cerkovnik, Straughan and Scherubl clocked a 1:31.75. Both Krzyzaniak and Straughan posted top splits for the Ponies going 23.49 in the backstroke and 21.57 in the butterfly, respectively.

The evening closed with a closely contested 400-yard freestyle relay in which Krzyzaniak, Schenke, Straughan and Cerkovnik turned in a 3:04.97 performance to finish behind TCU's A relay, which touched in 3:04.35.

"I feel bad for the guys because you want to win," Sinnott added, "but if you were here it was as exciting as a meet could be. Unfortunately they came out on top, but we're going to keep doing the things we're doing and we're going to improve on the things we didn't do well and ultimately it's all going to work out really well."

The Mustangs are back in action on Nov. 7 when they travel to LSU to take on the Tigers in Baton Rouge. Events begin at 12 p.m. CT. Check SMUMustangs.com and follow the program on social media for up-to-date information.

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