Drury University Press release
A victory in the evening’s final race, the 200 Free Relay, gave the Panthers’ men a 126-117 victory over rival Missouri State and a sweep of their annual “Duel In The Pool” matches Thursday night at the Breech Pool.
The Drury women picked a 146-97 victory for the sweep, and a split of their season series after the NCAA Division I Bears won both sides back in October at their Hammons Student Center Pool.
Drury captured six of the 11 men’s races on the night. Needing a win in the final 200 Free Relay, the Panthers took it up another notch with a 1-2 finish in the match-closing race.Nick McCarthy, Aaron Buckingham, Igor Kowal and Stanislav Kuzmin of the Drury “A” finished in a Breech Pool-record 1:21.37, just ahead of the DU B unit of Daniel Radzowski, Fred Karu, David Wong and Walter Ross (1:23.89).
The DU men, nine-time defending NCAA-II national champions, also picked up victories from Fahad Alkhaldi in the 1000, Rzadkowski in the 200 Free, McCarthy in the 50 Free (in a pool-record 20.18), Kuzmin in the 100 Fly (in a pool-record 48.01); and Wong in the 500 Free. Rzadkowski and Wong became eligible at the semester for the Panthers.
The DU women won 9 of the 11 races and dominated the Bears from the start.
Victories for the Panthers came from Sarah Pullen in the 1000 and 500 Free, Tinsley Andrews in the 200 and 100 Free, Agnieszka Ostrowska in the 200 IM and 100 Breast (in a pool-record 1:02.57), Wai Ting Yu in the 100 Fly, Yakaterina Rudenko in the 100 Back, Rebekah Laupp in the 3-meter diving and Andrews, Leah Reed, Tessa Tilton and Yu in the 200 Free Relay.
The Drury men now lead the all-time series with Missouri State 15-13, while the DU women pushed their series lead to 12-4.
The Panthers will close out their home schedule on Saturday when they entertain Mizzou in a 1 p.m. start at Breech, with Senior Day festivities preceding the meet.
DU fans can catch Mediacom Connection 22’s replay of the “Duel In The Pool” on Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday and Suncay at 1 p.m.
Missouri State press release
Bears Swimming & Diving Falls at Drury
Men’s dual comes down to final event
SPRINGFIELD – Ahead, 111-107, going into the final event, but needing to win the 200 freestyle relay to take the meet with Drury, the Panthers beat out the Missouri State men’s swimming and diving team Thursday at Drury’s Breech Pool.
The Drury relay of Nick McCarthy, Aaron Buckingham, Igor Kowal and Stanislav Kuzmin won the race in 1:21.37 wile the MSU `A’ relay made up of Yuri Garanito, Caleb Schuermann, Matthew Wilson and Isaac McKnight was disqualified.
“We knew it was going to be close,” said MSU head coach Dave Collins. “We had done the math at each of the breaks and even before the meet, so we knew where we needed to have some certain points.”
The MSU women fell, 146-97, to the Panthers.
The Bears, who dropped to 6-2 and 6-3 in men’s and women’s dual meets this season, earned 10 total victories on the night.
MSU started strong sweeping the 200-yard medley relays. Anna Ahlin, Renata Sander, Roni Balzam and Kate Gately touched first in 1:44.95, while the men’s squad of Paul Le, Isaac Springer, Vitalii Baryshok and Uvis Kalnins won in 1:29.31.
Gately was the only multiple-event winner on the women’s side, taking the 50 freestyle in 24.00.
The men’s team broke three pool records, two of which MSU had already owned. Kalnins swam a strong 200 IM to set the pool mark in 1:48.89. Springer followed a 55.05 in the 100 breast to lower his previous pool record. Le did the same in the 100 back, dropping his pool record by two hundredths of a second to 48.67.
Kalnins also turned in a blistering 100 free in 44.97, to lower his previous season best of 45.12, achieved at the TYR Invitational prelims onNov. 24.
“This meet always brings out some really good swims,” Collins said. And I was impressed with some folks tonight on what they were able to do coming off Christmas training and really getting after it.”
The Bears divers did well to take of three of four boards, including Garrett Nevels sweeping both the 1- and 3-meter events. Lindsey Conwaywas victorious in the 1-meter with 252.90 points. Nevels scored 315.60 and 339.82, respectively.
“There at the end, we had a nice win on the 3-meter board and a nice win in the 100 breast,” Collins said. “The depth points didn’t exactly trickle down to where we needed them, so we were in a position where we needed to win the last relay. And we just didn’t have the personnel at that point.”
Missouri state returns home Saturday its Senior Day festivities. The men’s team takes on Missouri S&T and the women entertain Lindenwood starting at 2 p.m., at Hammons Student Center Pool.