Final Results

GENEVA, Ohio – After four days of hard work and competition, the University of Evansville men's swimming team comes back to campus with its best conference finish in 13 years, earning a 6^th place team finish at the Mid-American Conference Championships.
 
"I am very happy with way this team came together and was willing to put themselves aside for the betterment of the team," head coach Rickey Perkins said.  "There is not a man on this team that did not agree to suffer for the good of the team, academically and athletically. It was a remarkable season. We broke 5 school records and we finished in 6th place, our best finish in 13 years."
 
The milestone run by the Purple Aces was capped off by another stellar day in the pool on Saturday.  The top performance by the squad came in the 200 backstroke as Ethan O'Rourke and Daniel O'Brien advanced to the consolation finals with each coming home in the top 15.  O'Rourke registered a 14^th place finish with O'Brien just a spot behind.  O'Rourke swam a 1:51.66 in his preliminary race and improved by over a second in the consolation finals, checking in at 1:50.59.  O'Brien's finished the finals in 1:53.66.
 
Reid Mobley was also within shouting distance of qualifying for the finals in the event.  His 1:59.53 was just 0.29 short of qualifying. 
 
In the 200 breaststroke, Troy Burger continued his successful run in Geneva.  He took 11^th in the prelims (2:01.80) to advance to the consolation finals.  In the finals, he swam even better, posting a 2:00.97 to come home in 12^th spot.  Also swimming well in the prelims were Will Glasscock and Conor Sprick.  Glasscock came in 19^th with a 2:05.97 while Sprick took 21^st, finishing in 2:07.28.
 
Andrew Cotton has been UE's top long distance swimmer throughout the duration of the championships and continued that success with his best run of the event.  In the 1650 free race, Cotton came home 15^th in the finals with a 16:13.36.  He was just over a second behind 14^th.
 
Ashton Bishop was strong in the 100 free.  He swam a 47.31 in the seed round before improving to 46.62 in the prelims.  His efforts were good for 20^th place.
 
As a team, the Purple Aces accomplished a great feat in coming home sixth.  Their score of 146 was enough to edge out Ball State's 127.  Top honors in the championships went to Eastern Michigan.  The Eagles posted 777.5 points to edge out Missouri State's 757.5.  Buffalo took third while Southern Illinois and Miami Ohio rounded out the top five.