November 15, 1999.....Contact: John Kean.....Phone: 573-341-4140

MINER SWIMMERS DROP PAIR OF WEEKEND MEETS

The University of Missouri-Rolla swimming team, ranked third in the first College Swimming Coaches Association of America rankings, took a step up in competition over the weekend as it faced an NCAA Division I opponent and the defending NCAA Division II champions.

UMR lost both meets, 116 1/2 to 86 1/2 to Drury and 126-73 to Southwest Missouri State, but the Miners had several strong performance in both meets. In Friday's meet with Drury, UMR had winning performances from David Nurre (Lewisville, Texas) in the 200-yard freestyle in 1:45.26 and from Steve Caruso (Florissant, Mo./Hazelwood Central) in the 200-yard butterfly in 1:57.85.

The Miners' 400-yard freestyle relay team of Dave Belleville (Chesterfield, Mo./ Marquette), Nurre, Jeremy Evans (Bloomington, Ill.) and Mike Lach (Lenexa, Kan./Shawnee Mission West) was also victorious in a time of 3:10.50.

On Saturday, UMR got wins from Belleville in the 100-freestyle in 46.88, Bruno Amizic (Split, Croatia) in the 100-breaststroke in 1:00.05, and from its 200-freestyle relay team of Belleville, Tom Beccue (Mackinaw, Ill.), Nurre and Lach in 1:26.70.

The Miners will be idle from meet competition until after the Thanksgiving weekend. UMR's next competition will be in the Arkansas-Little Rock Invitational beginning Dec. 3, when it will try to qualify a number of individuals for the NCAA Division II Championships.

UMR IN FIRST NATIONAL SWIMMING RANKINGS AT NO. 3

The Miner swimming team is ranked third in the first College Swimming Coaches Association of America Division II rankings of the 1999-2000 season, which were released late last week.

UMR is ranked behind California State University-Bakersfield and defending NCAA Division II champion Drury College -- whom it lost a dual meet to Friday -- in the inaugural rankings. Immediately behind the Miners are Metropolitan State College (Colo.) and West Chester University (Pa.).

The teams ranked sixth through 10th are California (Pa.), Ouachita Baptist (Ark.), Truman State, Delta State (Miss.) and the Colorado School of Mines.

UMR was ranked as high as second last year in the rankings, which are calculated by the teams' top times during the course of the season.