Drury Sweeps NCAA Division II Championships

COLUMBUS, Ohio, March 17. THE Drury University men's and women's swimming and diving teams did not need the luck of the Irish on St. Patrick's Day to win the 2007 NCAA Division II Championships. Sweeping all 10 of the swimming events on the final day, the Panthers clinched their fifth DII title on both the men's and women's side.

The Lady Panthers finished with 646.5 points. Truman State finished second with 518 points and UC-San Diego took third in a score of 318. For the men, Drury totaled 665.5 points, while the University of North Dakota was the runner-up with 485 points. Wayne State finished third in 360.

Women's 1,650-yard Freestyle
Katie Brosseau opened the final day of competition with a win in the 1,650-yard freestyle. Even with runner-up Ashley St. Andrews for the first 20 laps, the West Chester sophomore pulled away to finish in 17:01.15. St. Andrews hit the wall next in 17:09.13 for her second silver medal in a distance event this weekend. Molly Polette, who won the 500-yard freestyle Friday, rounded out the Top 3 in 17:19.12.

Men's 1,650-yard Freestyle
The Drury men dominated the distance event, recording the fastest two times of the race. Freshman Kurtis MacGillivary touched in first at 15:21.37 to add a third gold medal to his resume this weekend. Teammate Mitch Snyder followed in 15:31.50. Matt Hug swam the third fastest time of 15:43.89.

Women's 100-yard Freestyle
Jing Hua became a triple-event winner when she clocked a time of 50.34 in the 100-yard freestyle. Isabela Tafur also swam a sub-51 second to fill the second-place position. Panther Eunate Garro joined teammate Hua in the Top 3 with a time of 51.13.

Men's 100-yard Freestyle
Switching from distance to sprint, Panthers occupied the first two places for the second consecutive event. Yiwen Huang garnered the win in 44.61. Teammate Ismeal Ortiz was the only other swimmer to finish under 45 seconds, swimming a time of 44.93. Freshman Gus Chagas of Wingate edged the competition to take third in 45.11.

Women's 200-yard Backstroke
Sarah Watson lowered her preliminary time of 2:03.59 to 2:01.05 to move from third into first in 200-yard backstroke. Drury swimmers Cara Fadel and Janelle Slatter filled the remaining medal positions. Fadel finished as the runner-up in 2:02.10, while Slatter put up a time of 2:03.42 for the bronze.

Men's 200-yard Backstroke
Tomas Kuzvard picked up Drury's ninth medal of the night when he edged Ouachita's Radu Badalac with a time of 1:47.19. Badalac stopped the clock next at 1:47.37. Badalac's teammate, Nelson Silva earned another medal for the tigers with his time of 1:48.94.

Women's 200-yard Breaststroke
Kathrin Dumitru earned her third championship title of the meet when dropped a 2:16.70 decision in the 200-yard breaststroke to outdistance the competition by three seconds. Brooke Heat was responsible for second place in 2:19.35. Sarah Wollenhaupt became North Dakota's first medal winner of the night when she finished third in 2:19.84.

Men's 200-yard Breaststroke
Completing a sweep of tonight's individual swimming events on the men's side, Panther Artem Sloudnov outswam the heat by two seconds with a winning time of 2:01.44. Christer Tour swam the second-fastest time of 2:03.36, while Renan Rossin squeaked into third by .04 seconds in 2:04.32.

Women's 400-yard Freestyle Relay
Drury University ended the fourth and final day of the NCAA DII championships by capturing its eighth title of the evening. The team of Jing Hua, Cara Fadel, Eunate Garro and Mariana De Oliveira hit the wall four seconds ahead of the competition in 3:24.32.

The quad of Liz Whiteley, Shannon Simonds, Aubrey Panis and Emily Harlan of UC-San Diego concluded the meet with a second place finish in a time of 3:28.31. North Dakota finished shortly after in 3:28.69.

Men's 400-yard Freestyle Relay
Drury concluded the national championships with its tenth title of the night to complete a sweep of the last day's swimming events. The squad of Tomas Kuzvard, Yiwen Huang, Kurtis MacGillivary and Ismeal Ortiz was the only team to swim under three minutes for a combined time of 2:59.59.

In a battle for second, North Dakota's quad of Daniel Moraes, Rodigo Ferreira, Per Westergren and Eric Knight came out on top in a time of 3:00.51. UC-San Diego rounded out the medal postitions in 3:00.80.

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