Arizona All-American Breaststroker Blair Bish announced he would transfer to Missouri State for his remaining two years of eligibility. Bish was 15th at the 2017 NCAA Championships in the 100 breaststroke with a 52.51. Bish’s best times (52.13) and (1:56.23) would have won the Mid-American Conference Championship titles ahead of the 53.61 and 1:57.05 that won the titles this past year.
Bish joins a stacked breaststroke group at Missouri State that has All-American sophomore Artur Osvath as the headliner. Osvath was 15th (1:53.87) and 39th (53.32) in the breaststroke events at NCAA’s. Osvath qualified for NCAA’s in his first two years at Missouri State. The Bears also finished 1st and 3rd in the 200 breast at the MAC Championships with Phillip Willett (1:57.07) and Chris Heye (1:57.84). The ladder two competed at the 2016 Olympic Trials in the event.
Bish also will provide some good relay depth for the Bears as he went 20.40 at the Pac-12 Championships in the 50 free, where he would have finished fourth in the MAC. He also split a 23.01 in the 50 breast on Arizona’s 200 medley relay at Pac-12’s, which was a second faster than any swimmer in the MAC in the same relay.
Bish joins former club teammates Chris, Thomas Heye and Minki Kang who swam with him at Arkansas Dolphin Swim Team in Little Rock. Bish’s decision to transfer out of Arizona comes a few days after Taylor Garcia announced she would transfer out of Arizona and join her home-state Michigan Wolverines. Arizona head coach Rick Demont announced last week that he was retiring from coaching.
Missouri State finished second at the MAC Championships this year by one point to conference powerhouse Eastern Michigan. The Bears also sent two swimmers to the NCAA’s this year with Osvath and Arkansas native freshman Antonio Thomas.