7 Conference Records Fall In DII Powerhouse-Packed GLVC Champs Day 2

GREATER LAKES VALLEY CHAMPIONSHIPS

• February 10, 2016 – February 13, 2016
• Crawfordsville Aquatics Center, Crawfordsville, IA
• Championships Central
• Live Stream
• Live Results
• Day 2 Full Results/Scoring

NCAA Division II powerhouses Drury, Missouri S&T, Indianapolis, and Truman State joined up with the other teams of the GLVC for day 2 the Greater Lakes Valley Championships today. On the women’s side, Drury holds their lead with 477 points, Truman State is in second with 419, and Indianapolis sits third with 259 points. On the men’s side, Missouri S&T took over the lead from Drury; Missouri S&T now sits at 400 points, followed by Drury’s 358 and Indianapolis’s 298.

The night kicked off with a huge GLVC record-setting swim from Truman State, the team’s first relay win of the week. Evyn Spencer (yesterday’s 200 IM champion), Jamie Fitzpatrick, Alison Strickler, and Nikki Sisson all came in with splits under 23.5 to swim a brisk 1:32.82 in the 200 free relay. The old record was set last year by Drury, a 1:33.65. Drury’s team members (3 out of 4 of which were on last year’s record-setting team) came in second with 1:33.66. Indianapolis hit third with 1:35.44.

Another GLVC record fell when the men of Drury, Daniel Rzadkowski, Aaron Buckingham, Walter Ross, and Rodrigo Caceres, came together to swim a 1:20.27 in the 200 free relay. The old record was set by nearly the same team last year, a 1:20.74. Missouri S&T finished second with 1:20.76 and Lewis University finished third in 1:22.36.

Gretchen Stein of Drury kept the record streak going in the 400 IM, blasting out a 4:22.75 to take down her own 4:24.18 from last season; Stein, a senior, was the 200 IM runner-up last night. Her sophomore teammate Sophia Nelson finished second in 2:29.71, and Agnieszka Malecka of Indianapolis finished third in 4:30.40.

The fourth record of the night came from Truman State sophomore Will Shanel, taking down his own record 3:51.16 by a landslide with 3:48.56. That swim came in nearly three seconds under the NCAA ‘A’ mark and would have won a silver medal at last year’s NCAA Division II Championships. Indianapolis freshman George Oancea finished second with 3:59.41, with Lewis’s Quinn Poti close behind in 3:59.86.

Vera Johansson of Drury, a sophomore, took the gold in the 100 fly with 54.80, just edging out Truman State’s Spencer’s 54.83. William Jewell’s Paige Meredith finished third in 55.38.

The men’s 100 fly went to Drury senior Stanislav Kuzmin with 48.96. His teammate Caceres took second with 49.17 and a close third went to Eirik Nielsen of Missouri S&T with 49.24.

Wen Xu, yesterday’s 50 champion and the 2015 NCAA DII runner-up in the 50 free, took the win in the 200 free with 1:48.71, taking down her own GLVC record of 1:49.17 from last season. Second went to Truman State’s Sisson in 1:50.81, and Sarah Pullen won the bronze in 1:52.20.

Missouri S&T’s Keith Sponsler, who won the 50 free last night, took down his own GLVC record 1:36.57 from last year, swimming 1:36.54 to win the 200 free tonight. He just missed the ‘A’ cut 1:36.51. His teammate Jonathan Glaser took second in 1:37.43. Drury’s Rzadkowski took third in 1:37.84.

The women of Drury, Abby Lunzmann, Zuzanna Chwadeczko, Johansson, and Xu won the 400 medley relay in 3:42.59. Truman State finished second in 3:50.61, and Indianapolis hit third in 3:53.82.

Drury swept the medley relays and took another record in the final swim of the night; their men, Ramiro Olivares, Jesus Flores, Kuzmin, and Rzadkowski, took down Drury’s record 3:15.21 from last year with 3:15.02. The Missouri S&T team came in close behind with 3:15.34, and Lewis finished third in 3:17.87.

Tomorrow the swimmers will take on the 500 free, 100 back, 100 breast, 200 fly, and the 800 free relay.