CLEVELAND, Mississippi – The No. 16 Ouachita men's swimming and diving team won the 2024 Delta State Turkey Invite, taking first place out of eight teams, with six program records broken and five Tigersharks qualifying for the national championships in the process.
The men racked up a total of 1915.5 points to take first place overall. Host and No. 20 Delta State placed second with 1638.5 points. DIII No. 21 Rhodes placed third with 1222 points, followed by Hendrix in fourth (812), William Carey in fifth (678), University of the Ozarks in sixth (308), Millsaps in seventh (306), and Meridian Community College in eighth (3).
Tigersharks tallied 12 event wins at across the three-day invitational to help Ouachita earn the meet victory.
Daniel Meszaros led the way with three event wins and two new school records. Meszaros won the 200 Freestyle by nearly five seconds with a time of 1:34.67, breaking his previous record by three seconds and hitting an A-Cut time to qualify for nationals. The Hungarian also won the 500 Freestyle by almost two seconds with a time of 4:24.77, breaking his previous record by almost five seconds and making the B-Cut for nationals. Meszaros' third win came in the 100 Freestyle with a time of 43.70, also hitting the B-Cut mark.
Zsombor Bujdoso picked up two event wins and set a new record, taking first in the 400 IM by more than two seconds with an NCAA B-Cut time of 3:51.28, breaking his own school record. Bujdoso also won the 200 IM by more than a second with a time of 1:48.17, making the B-Cut for nationals.
Miles Schulze won two events and broke two of his own school records. Schulze won the 100 Breaststroke by almost two seconds with a record time of 53:57. The Prosper, Texas native also won the 200 Breaststroke by more than a second with a new record and NCAA B-Cut time of 1:57.26.
Michael Higgens won the 100 Butterfly by less than a second with a time of 48.51, making the B-Cut for the NCAA Championships.
The 400 Freestyle Relay squad of Higgens, Meszaros,
Vince Pal, and
Sam Ragsdell won the event by more than two seconds with an NCAA provisional time of 2:56.90, breaking a 21-year-old school record and punching their ticket to nationals.
The 200 Freestyle Relay squad of Meszaros, Ragsdell, Ware, and
Rafael Bustillo won the event with a time of 1:21.03.
The 200 Medley Relay squad of
Ethan Sparks, Schulze,
David Ware, and R. Bustillo won the event by less than half a second with a time of 1:29.99.
The 400 Medley Relay squad of Sparks, Schulze, Higgens, and Meszaros won the relay by nearly three seconds with a time of 3:17.39.
Elijah Donaldson qualified for nationals in 3-Meter Diving as he placed second in the event with a score of 465.85 points.
In total, the Tigershark men recorded 34 A-Final top five finishes across the 19 events at the three-day invitational to win by nearly 300 points.
The Tigersharks have some time off but will be back in the pool in 2025 when they travel to Pensacola, Florida to compete against William Carey University at the University of West Florida on Saturday, January 4.
