The women of Drury knew they would need a great 200 medley relay if they had any hopes of leading the team battle by the end of night one. Katya Rudenko led the underclass relay team of Zuzanna Chwadeczko, Vera Johansson, and Wen Xu to a new DII NCAA record in the 200 medley relay. With Cal Baptist close at the 150 Xu, the 50-free runner up, closed the door on Cal Baptist and the rest of the field with a blistering 22.18 anchor leg.
Comparative splits
- Drury 2014( Rudenko, Ostrowska, Yu, Andrews)- 25.33/28.27/23.89/22.96 = 1:40.45
- Drury 2015( Rudenko, Chwadeczko, Johansson, Xu)- 24.86/28.66/24.39/22.18 = 1:40.09
The major differences in this years relay record were the development of Rudenko and Xu as they were well under last year’s record setting splits. Cal Baptist (1:40.89) and Wingate (1:41.87) touched second and third in the final rounding out the top 3.
After the medley relay Drury (128 points) jumped Queens (123 points) for possession of first place. With Wingate in third with 67 points as of now it seems we have a two team race for the rest of the weekend. Look for the same quartet of Drury to ride this momentum into tomorrow’s session and go after last year’s 400 medley relay record of 3:39.29 tomorrow night.