Night Two Results | Day Three Heat Sheet | Championship Central

HOUSTON (SMU) - The SMU men's swimming and diving team won three of four events on night two of the American Athletic Conference Championship held on the University of Houston's campus at the CRWC Natatorium. Christian Scherubl and Ziga Cerkovnik picked up individual wins, while the Mustangs' 200-yard freestyle relay earned the victory.

In a closely contested event, the evening began with a 500-yard freestyle race that needed a pool record to decide the victor. Scherubl, who was seeded third after the event prelims, finished just off his school and meet record of 4:18.72 edging out East Carolina's Michael Dugan by just four-hundredths of a second. This was his second 500-free win at the conference championship in as many attempts.


The event's Championship Final also featured freshmen Lucas Schenke and Carson Klein, who both posted personal bests in preliminary action, and finished sixth and eighth, respectively. In the opening race of the day, Schenke clocked a 4:24.94 NCAA B standard.

The 500 Consolation Final proved to be just as exciting for the Mustangs, as Matthew Colket (4:27.83) out-touched Justin Crew of Cincinnati by .13 seconds for the win.

SMU's second individual champion of the night was junior Ziga Cerkovnik, doing so in the 50-yard freestyle. Cerkovnik was the top seed heading into the evening's Championship Final after having posted the event's only sub-20 second time of the day. The 19.97 was a personal best for Cerkovnik, who went on to win the night's final with a 20.05.

Bartosz Krzyzaniak also scored for the Mustangs in the event, posting a personal-best 20.52 for sixth place in the 'A' Final, while Justin Gibson tied for second in the Consolation Final and Nick Hook was fifth.

To close the night, SMU won its second relay of the Championship as Krzyzaniak, Sam Straughan, Cerkovnik and Scherubl paced the competition in the 200 free relay. After being seeded with a 1:22.65, the Mustangs were the only team to break 1:20.00 in the event, posting a 1:19.90.

Brandon Norman also competed in the 'A' Final of the 200-yard individual medley finishing eighth, while Tucker Wells won the 'B' Final to lead three Mustangs in the race. Freshmen Kianu Kitching and Garrett Carson finished 13th and 16th overall to contribute to SMU's total.

SMU remains in second place in the team standings with 278.5 points. East Carolina sits atop the leaderboard at 295.50, and Cincinnati (212) and Connecticut (203) are third and fourth, respectively.

Day three preliminary action begins at 10 a.m. CT. Follow the Mustangs on social media for event updates, and visit The American Championship page for results, video and more. Day three events include the 400 individual medley, 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle, 100 breaststroke, 100 backstroke and the 400 medley relay. The Mustang divers return to action on the 3-meter tomorrow after having today off.

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