MUS Sports News

Owl Swimmers Get Win

The varsity swimming team  won their second meet of the season as they tallied 120 points, defeating Collierville by 8 points as well as easily handling Bartlett, Bolton, St. George's, and Lausanne.

Two Owls claimed first-place finishes. Junior Austin Chu placed first in the 200-individual medley while sophomore Drew Fleming placed first in the 50-yard backstroke.

Other top 8 finishers included the following:

Jamie Drinan	2nd (50 Freestyle)
Hank Wynn	2nd (50 Breaststroke)
Aaron Struminger	2nd (200 Individual Medley)
Gatlin Hardin	3rd (50 Breaststroke)
Kevin Wang	3rd (200 Freestyle) and 3rd (100 Butterfly)
John Harkess	5th (200 Freestyle)
Tyler Beard	5th (100 Butterfly)
Gordon Conaway	5th (50 Freestyle)
Cody Mayer	5th (200 Individual Medley)
Jonathan Lunati	5th (50 Backstroke)
Geer Alexander	6th (50 Freestyle)
Sam Buckner	6th (200 Freestyle)
Joseph Robinson	6th (100 Butterfly)
Jon-Michael Taylor	6th (50 Backstroke)
Parth Sheth	6th (50 Breaststroke)

Additionally, Kevin Wang, Austin Chu, Jamie Drinan, and John Harkess placed 2nd in the 200 medley relay as did the 200 Freestyle team of Kevin Wang, Geer Alexander, Austin Chu, and Jamie Drinan.

MUS is next in action on Saturday, February 1, at the Bartlett Recreation Center. The 1:00 p.m. meet will pit Bolton, Houston, Lausanne, and Cordova against the streaking Owls.

Basketball Moves to 2-2 in District

After falling on the road to ECS last Friday night, the varsity Owls got back to some winning ways as they easily handled the Briarcrest Saints, 63-34, Tuesday night to even their district record at 2-2.

MUS had many opportunities several days earlier against the Eagles in a back-and-forth affair.

The Owls led by 5 late in the first half when the meltdown occurred. ECS scored the last 5 points of the first half to tie the score at the break at 37, and the Eagles continued that momentum in the second half as they reeled off a 22-3 run to take a 14-point lead at 54-40 midway through the 3rd quarter.

MUS tried to fight back and get in the game, but they never got closer than 3 points as ECS won 70-65.

Ryan Baum led the Owls in scoring with 19 points, while Derek Clenin and John Phillips each added 10. Phillips also contributed 8 rebounds as MUS won the overall rebounding battle by 8. However, Matt Lea's 22 points and Josh Meeks' 20 led to the Owls' downfall.

But the Owls ended their losing streak at home against the Saints.

MUS jumped out early and never looked back as Phillips and Baum worked effectively in the lane throughout the evening. Baum tallied 20 points and 8 rebounds while Phillips added 13 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists. MUS extended their 9-point halftime lead in the third quarter as they hit their first 8 shots of the quarter to blow the game open. With the win the Owls improve to 12-8, 2-2.

MUS goes on the road for their next contest as they travel to St. Benedict to battle the Eagles Friday night. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m.

Sophomore Owl Wins Memphis Mile

Sophmore Aaron Struminger, a member of the varsity swimming team, recently competed in Memphis Mile swim competition, held this past Sunday at the Jewish Community Center.

Swimming sixty-six lengths, Struminger completed the course in 25 minutes and 59 seconds, finishing first in the under-18 age group.

Congratulations to Aaron on this great accomplishment.

Swimmers Place Second as Postseason Draws Near

With only three regular-season meets left, the varsity swimming team continued preparing for their championship challenge as they finished second in their latest meet held Saturday at St. George's.

The Owls scored 78 points, finishing 34 points behind CBHS while beating Germantown, St. Benedict, Bolton, and Lausanne.

MUS had the maximum three swimmers place in every event, a very big accomplishment.

The following were Owl top-8 finishes:

Kevin Wang	3rd (500 freestyle) and 4th (50 butterfly)
Tommy Horton	3rd (100 backstroke)
Jamie Drinan	4th (100 freestyle) and 4th (100 individual medley)
Jonathan Lunati	4th (100 backstroke)
Aaron Struminger	4th (500 freestyle) and 7th (50 butterfly)
John Harkess	5th (100 freestyle) and 7th (100 individual medley)
Gatlin Hardin	5th (100 breaststroke) and 8th (50 butterfly)
Tyler Beard	6th (100 individual medley)
Jon-Michael Taylor	6th (100 backstroke)
Collier Calandruccio	6th (100 breaststroke)
Dex Witte	6th (500 freestyle)
Gordon Conaway	8th (100 freestyle)
Nicholas Vincent	8th (100 breaststroke)
Wang, Harkess, Struminger, and Drinan	2nd (400 freestyle relay)

The Owls next prepare for Thursday, January 30, as they travel to St. George's for another meet. The competition will include Bartlett, Bolton, St. George's, Lausanne, and Collierville for the 5:00 p.m. event.

Harding's Williams Puts Down Owls

After having sat out their previous game, Harding forward Trey Williams was looking forward to getting back out on the court against MUS last Tuesday night.

With fresh legs and an offensive aggressiveness, Williams did not disappoint as he dropped 33 points on the Owls to lead the Lions to a 60-52 conference victory.

MUS looked good early against Harding as they handled the Lion pressure and got easy baskets. Consequently, the Owls shot 62.5% from the field in that first half, a great percentage. However, MUS shot only 16 shots, 10 fewer than Harding. Thus, even though the Lions shot worse than 50% in the first half, they still took a 33-27 lead into the break because they had shot more.

Though they were down, the Owls were feeling confident that they could weather Harding's pressure and stay close to give themselves a shot at the end. They had few turnovers and were beating the Lions down the court, so the opportunities would be present in the second half.

However, Williams would not let his team lose. Every time MUS made a run, Williams stepped up and hit a big shot to keep the Owls out of reach.

Ryan Baum tried to keep MUS close as he tallied 23 points and 3 rebounds. John Phillips also added 8 points and 4 rebounds.

Yet the Owls never had an answer for Williams, who shot 13-23 from the floor, including 4-9 from the three-point range.

MUS did out-rebound Harding 23-20 and shot 51.4% from the field for the game, but they could never regain the lead in the second half.

With the loss the Owls drop to 11-7, 1-1. They stay on the road Friday night as they travel to ECS to battle the talented Eagles. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m.

Swimmers Come Close in Relay Meet

The MUS Swim Team finished third in the Relay Meet held on Monday, January 20, at the Bartlett Rec Center.

The Owls tallied 81 points, finishing a mere 10 points behind Houston and 11 points behind CBHS. Collierville came in fourth with 51, while Cordova, St. Benedict, Bartlett, Germantown, Bolton, ECS, Briarcrest, White Station, and Lausanne all followed.

The following MUS relay teams finished third:
200 Medley: Drew Fleming, Austin Chu, Jamie Drinan, Tyler Beard
200 Backstroke: Drew Fleming, Tommy Horton, Gatlin Hardin, Austin Chu
200 Breaststroke: Collier Calandruccio, Nicholas Vincent, Tyler Beard, Aaron Struminger

The following relays finished fourth:
200 Butterfly: Tyler Beard, Gatlin Hardin, Austin Chu, Joseph Robinson
200 Freestyle: John Harkess, Gordon Conaway, Geer Alexander, Jamie Drinan
400 Freestyle: Geer Alexander, Collier Calandruccio, Sam Buckner, John Harkess    

The next varsity meet is Saturday, January 25, at 11:30a.m. at St. Georges'. Participant teams include CBHS, St. Benedict, Bolton, Lausanne, and Germantown.

Basketball Owls Open Region with Win

Following a disappointing 45-38 loss last Wednesday night to Wooddale in one of the final non-conference games of the year, the varsity basketball team began their new season, the conference season, in style, defeating rival CBHS for the 14th time out of 16 opportunities with a 61-48 victory last Friday night.

The Owls placed three players in double figures in scoring, led by Ryan Baum's 22 points. Philip Reed had a strong game as he tallied 13 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal, while Derek Clenin added 11 points.

MUS held the lead throughout as the Purple Wave shot very poorly from the field. The Owls held a 24-16 lead at the break as CBHS shot only 23.1% for the first half, including an 0-5 mark from three-point range.

MUS only increased the advantage after the break as they shot 62.5% from the floor to build the lead to as many as 16 points, and CBHS had no answer.

The Wave tried to keep Baum off-balance as Clenin's defender regularly sagged off the senior point guard to help on Baum, yet Clenin responded by staying patient and keeping the ball moving to find cracks in the CBHS defense. The Owls only had 12 turnovers for the game and also forced 8 steals against the talented Wave.

MUS, now 11-6, 1-0, face two tough road games this week. Tonight they play Harding at 7:30 p.m. while they travel to ECS to battle the Eagles on Friday night. Both are very important as they are critical region games.

Swimmers Take Second in County Meet

The MUS varsity swimming team placed second in a meet at St. George's last Saturday as several Owls had fine performances.

Senior Jamie Drinan achieved a state-qualifying time as he placed third in the 50 freestyle.  His time of 24.77 seconds will allow him to compete at the state meet in Nashville on February 22 and 23.  He also placed 6th in the 100 butterfly.

Other MUS top-8 finishers included the following:
Austin Chu: 2nd (50 breaststroke) and 4th (200 individual medley)
Kevin Wang: 3rd (200 individual medley) and 3rd (200 freestyle)
Erim Sarinoglu: 3rd (50 backstroke)
Hank Wynn: 3rd (50 breaststroke) and 7th (200 freestyle)
John Harkess: 5th (200 freestyle) and 7th (50 freestyle)
Gordon Conaway: 5th (50 freestyle)
Tyler Beard: 5th (100 butterfly)
Tommy Horton: 5th (50 backstroke)
Sean Curran: 5th (50 breaststroke)
Aaron Struminger: 7th (100 butterfly)
Collier Callandruccio: 7th (200 individual medley)

Also, both Owl relay teams placed third.  The 200 medley relay team was composed of Chu, Drinan, Sarinoglu, and Struminger, while Harkess, Sarinoglu, Wang, and Wynn made up the 200 freestyle team.

The Owls placed second, finishing with 84 points, while Houston won the meet with 123 points.  Cordova finished a close third with 82 points, while Bolton had 27 and Lausanne 0.

The Owl swimmers are next in action in a meet at St. George's on Thursday, January 16.  Opponents include Bartlett, Collierville, ECS, Germantown, and White Station for the meet that begins at 6:30 p.m.

Basketball Suffers Rare Home Loss

The MUS basketball team does not lose often at home. However, last Friday night, a very good Bartlett Panther squad came into the Ross M. Lynn Arena and handled the Owls, defeating them, 55-41, in a non-conference game.

MUS stayed within striking distance most of the game as they switched zone defenses to slow the fast-paced, high-flying Panthers down. Yet Bartlett shot the ball well from the outside, particularly in the first half, as they hit 61.9% from the field as well as 4 of 8 three-pointers in the first stanza to take a 32-21 halftime lead.

Though the Owls were down by 11 at the break, they felt as if the pace was to their liking, and they hoped Bartlett would not shoot as well in the second half.

MUS had several opportunities after the break to get into the ball game, yet every time they tried to make a run, the Panthers made a play. Jaycen Herring led Bartlett with 18 points, while guard Chase Hardin added 15, including shooting 5 of 8 from three-point range. The Panthers also took advantage of 19 MUS turnovers to prevent the Owls from making a run.

Ryan Baum led MUS in scoring with 15 points, while Clay Chapman added 7. The Owls did shoot fairly well from the field, hitting 48.3% for the game, but they only got 29 total shots as they had to work hard against the aggressive Panther man-to-man defense, too few with Bartlett shooting as well as they did.

The loss drops MUS to 10-5 as they prepare for their final non-conference game against Wooddale this Tuesday night. Tipoff for the away contest is set for 7:30 p.m.

Owl Swimmers Claim First in Meet

The MUS swimming team claimed its first victory in a league meet this year as they used a team effort to distance the competition.

The Owls scored 100 total points, beating Collierville (87), Bartlett (51), Briarcrest (16), Bolton (9), and St George's (0).

Though MUS did not have any first-place individual finishers, they placed enough qualifiers in the top-8 of each race to tally the team win.

Top-8 Owl finishers included the following:
Kevin Wang: 2nd (100 freestyle) and 3rd (500 freestyle)
Austin Chu: 2nd (100 breaststroke) and 4th (500 freestyle)
Jamie Drinan: 3rd (50 butterfly)
John Harkess: 3rd (100 freestyle)
Hank Wynn: 3rd (100 breaststroke)
Aaron Struminger: 3rd (Individual Medley)
Erim Sarinoglu: 4th (100 backstroke)
Geer Alexander: 4th (100 individual medley) and 5th (100 freestyle)
Tommy Horton: 4th (100 backstroke)
Nicholas Vincent: 5th (100 breaststroke)
Dex Witte: 5th (500 freestyle)
Tyler Beard: 5th (100 individual medley)
Gatlin Hardin: 6th (50 butterfly)
Jonathan Lunati: 7th (100 breaststroke)
Cody Mayer: 8th (50 butterfly)

MUS next is in competition Saturday, January 11, in a meet at St. George's. The meet starts at 10:00 a.m. and includes Bolton, Cordova, Houston, and Lausanne.