Drury Swimming And Diving Makes It An NCAA-II National Championships Sweep ... Again!
Scott Puryear, Sports Information Director
3/13/2010 8:39:34 PM
CANTON, Ohio - Drury's rich swimming tradition added another historic chapter on Saturday, as the Panthers became the first program to sweep the men's and women's national titles in back-to-back years when they captured both at the NCAA-II Championships at the C.T. Branin Natatorium.
The Drury men finished with 538 points for a 135-point victory, beating runner-up Incarnate Word (403). Wayne State was third with 343 points, while Grand Valley State (314) finished fourth and Ouachita Baptist (300) was fifth.
The DU women won their meet by 126 points, finishing with 657 points to runner-up Wayne State's 531. UC-San Diego was third at 318, followed by West Chester (313.5) and Truman State (251) to complete the top five.
Drury picked up its eighth men's title and seventh women's championship since the programs moved to the NCAA-II level in 1994-95. The Panthers now have swept both titles in 1999, 2007, 2009 and 2010.
The sixth consecutive national championship for the Drury men ranks second all-time among NCAA-II programs, trailing only the eight straight won by Cal-State Bakersfield from 1986-93. The DU women won for the second straight year and third time in the last four years.
And yet again, Drury - which also got a boost when sophomore Jun Han Kim was named National Men's Swimmer of the Year - used a strong final day to leave no doubt as to who ruled the pool in the four days of competition.
"It was just a tremendous effort by both squads all week," Drury coach Brian Reynolds said. "Our veterans showed our young kids who were here for the first time the determination and extra effort it took to get it done for four days, and I'm extremely proud of both groups. We had so many swimmers step up with amazing efforts to make sure we got the job done."
It started Saturday night for the women with a second and a fourth in the 1650 Freestyle from sophomore Erin Dolan and freshman Deanna Sorenson, and a 12th from sophomore Hannah McFall, respectively, for a quick 37 points. Then came a 4-7-8 finish from freshman Tiffany Van Dongen, senior Jing Hua and junior Li Tao in the 100 Free for another 38 points.
And the DU women poured it on from there, including another national title in the 200 Back from junior Juan Qing "Apple" Li and a fourth from senior Abbey Musch in the 200 Breast.
The DU men, meanwhile, opened Saturday's session with a second national championship of the week for freshman Chris Jacobsen, this time in the 1650 Free. Michael Winiewicz followed with a seventh and Carlos Viveros a ninth in the 100 Free, Alexander Protsenko added a second place in the 200 Back and Jun Han Kim finished third in the 200 Breast.
By the time the evening was headed to the final two events - men's 3-meter diving and the 400 Freestyle relay for both - the DU women had a 116-point lead, the DU men were up by 107 and all that was left for both was deciding how they were going handle their latest celebratory dive as a team into the pool after the awards ceremony.
For good measure, the Panthers picked up a victory in the women's 400 Free Relay by Kelsey Ward, Li Tao, Van Dongen and Li, while the men closed out the meet with a third-place finish from Chris Kohler, Sergei Bilov, Viveros and Winiewicz in the same event, touching off the traditional post-meet celebration for the DU squads.
"We came into this season with a lot of questions, particularly on the men's squad with all the quality swimmers we graduated last year," Reynolds said. "Our women really had strong leadership from a great senior group to show the younger swimmers how it's done, and our young guys really found a way to rise to the occasion here this week."
Saturday Results
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