Men’s swimming team sits in fourth-place after day two of 2012 MIAA Championships

200 freestyle relay wins in school record time and Fiorillo takes top spot in 50 free

HOLLAND, Mich. – Led by a first-place relay and first-place individual performance, the Olivet College men's swimming team sits in fourth-place after day two of the 2012 Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) Championships, hosted by Hope College and held inside the Holland Community Aquatic Center.

The Comets have accumulated 198 points and trail third-place Calvin College by only 19 points. Kalamazoo College leads the way with 296 points, followed by Hope with 248 points. Alma College and Albion College are fifth and sixth with 111 and 105 points, respectively.

The winning relay was the 200 freestyle team of sophomore Brian Fiorillo (Southgate/Anderson), senior Mike Harden (St. Johns), sophomore Ben Aldrich (DeWitt/St. Johns) and senior Austin Munn (Pinckney). They won in an NCAA Championships conditional qualifying cut and school record time of 1:22.86. It is only the second relay to win a MIAA title in school history. Fiorillo's leadoff split, 20.74 seconds, was also a conditional qualifying time and only four hundredths of a second off his own school record time.

In addition, Olivet is only the third MIAA school ever to win the 200 freestyle relay, as Hope has won the event 20 times and Kalamazoo four times. Also, the win by the Comets snap Kalamazoo's streak of 16 consecutive relay wins at the MIAA championships.

Fiorillo led a 1-4-6-8 Olivet finish in the 50 freestyle. His time was 20.76 seconds. Harden was fourth in 21.50 seconds, followed by Aldrich, 21.52; and Munn, 21.60. Junior Nick Edgar (Lansing/Everett) scored 14th-place points with a time of 22.26 seconds. Fiorillo becomes the first Olivet swimmer ever to win the 50 freestyle at the MIAA championships.

In the 500 freestyle, sophomore Korey Mervenne (Jenison) was in the championship finals and finished in seventh-place with a time of 4:51.23. Freshmen Jimmy DeRupa (Trenton) and Brandon McShane (Southgate/Anderson) were in the consolation finals. Their times were 4:53.25 and 4:56.52, which placed them 11th and 15th.

Freshman Georges Aoun (Barquisimeto, Venezuela/Unidad Educativa Colegio) was fourth in the 200 individual medley with a time of 1:57.17, and sophomore Tyler Russell (Bay City/Central) was 15th at 2:01.66.

The 400 medley relay quartet of Edgar, senior Matt Marquette (Kalamazoo/Loy Norrix), junior Joel Knight (Battle Creek/Lakeview) and Fiorillo placed fourth in 3:27.99, which is the second-best time in school history.

Action continues tomorrow and Saturday. Friday's events get underway with preliminaries in 12 swimming events, six for each gender, at 10 a.m., and finals in those same events at 5:30 p.m.