Men's swimming and diving team stands in first-place after first day of 2007 MIAA Championships

The Olivet College men's swimming and diving team stands in first-place after the first day of competition at the 2007 Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) Championships. The Comets have scored 167 points, which is just 2.5 points ahead of Hope College.

Highlighting the first day was Olivet finishing first, third, fourth and sixth on the one-meter diving board. Shawn Bergman (Chelsea) captured the title with a school-record and NCAA conditional qualifying score of 440.65 points. Justin Hulsebos (Wayland) was third, 423.40; followed by Andrew Wasson (Grand Ledge) in fourth, 401.80; and Andy Weiss (Fremont) in sixth, 371.25.

Olivet's 200-yard freestyle and 400-yard medley relays broke school records with third-place finishes. The 200 free team of Juan Aguirre (Queretaro, Mexico), Ananta Fetters (Fennville/Holland), Mitch Powers (Kalamazoo/Central) and Brad Voss (Lansing/Holt) clocked-in with a NCAA Championships conditional qualifying time of 1:24.61. The 400 medley relay team of Fetters and Powers along with Dustin Meisner (Temperance/Erie Mason) and Koji Takahashi (Etobicoke, Ontario) touched the wall in 3:29.27.

The Comets had five swimmers place in the top 12 of the 500-yard freestyle. Brian Jaffee (Bowling Green, Ohio) led them with a third-place finish in 4:45.38. Nathan Busscher (Hamilton/Holland Christian) was fourth (4:46.55), followed by Jason Wheatley (Portage/Central) in sixth (4:48.93). Sam Jaffee (Bowling Green, Ohio) had a time of 4:51.31 to place ninth and Nick Stone (Westland/John Glenn) was 10th in 4:52.19.

Yury Bylina (Minsk, Belarus) and Ryan Key (Phoenix, Ariz./Brophy Prep) were fourth and fifth, respectively, in the 200-yard individual medley. After swimming to a school-record time of 1:56.84 in the preliminaries, Bylina had a time of 1:57.27 in the finals. Key finished in 1:58.82.

With a first-place finish in the consolation finals of the 50-yard freestyle, Powers placed seventh. He broke his own school record with a time 21.50 seconds. Voss was fourth in the consolation final and 10th overall at 21.55 seconds.

Action from the Jenison High School Aquatic Center resumes tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. with preliminaries in seven events. The finals in those seven events will get under way at 6 p.m.