NCAA Division II Championships: Drury Women Tie Truman State; Drury Men Push Lead Heading Into Final Night

COLUMBIA, Missouri, March 14. WITH one more night to go at the NCAA Division II Championships, the men's team title race is pretty much in the bag as Drury will look for its fourth consecutive crown. Meanwhile, the Drury women moved into a first-place tie with Truman State as the final day of preliminary action will be of utmost importance.

Team Scores
Drury knotted the score up at 351-all with Truman State in the women's national title race. Last year, Drury stopped Truman State's six-year winning skein. San Diego held a distant third with 252 points, while North Dakota (246) and Wayne State (174) made up the rest of the top five.

The Drury men continued their push for a fourth straight title with 370 points for the top tally. West Chester stood in second with 259.5 points, while Ouachita Baptist held third with 220 points. Missouri S&T (205) and North Dakota (200) cleared the 200-point total for fourth and fifth, respectively.

Women's Meet
Kristen Frost of Southern Connecticut State dominated the 500 free as she continued her strong meet. This time, she hit the wall in 4:45.69 to claim her second DII record of the meet. It was a special one, as well – the oldest on the Division II books by three days. Laurence Bensimon of Florida Atlantic set the standard at 4:47.25 way back on March 11, 1987 in Chico, Calif. Bensimon's 16:28.14 in the 1650 free from March 14, 1987 is now the longest-standing record on the books. Frost already added the 1000 free record to her coffer with a 9:50.49 two days ago.

In the 100 back, Drury's Janelle Slattery touched out Ouachita's Sarah Watson, 55.32 to 55.60, while Maria Vlashchen of Wingate captured the 100 breast title in 1:02.71.

Alison Lesher of Le Moyne surfaced from a duel with San Diego's Jen Sims in the 200 fly as Lesher won 2:01.66 to 2:01.84.

Jill Smolczyk of South Dakota then laid claim to the one-meter diving crown with 421.15 points.

The Truman State women then garnered the 800 free relay title as Kate Aherne, Emily Pufall, Kendra Brunkow and Molly Polette won in 7:26.43.

Men's Meet
Aliaksandr Yats of the Incarnate Word posted a convincing win in the 500 free with a time of 4:25.84, while Drury's Alexander Prots held off Ouachita's Radu Badalac, 48.37 to 48.87, in the 100 back.

In another thrilling finish, Christer Tour of Wayne State touched out Jakub Jiracek of Seattle, 54.74 to 54.86, in the 100 breast as both cleared the DII record of 54.99 set by Artem Sludnov in 2005.

West Chester's Ben Kuntz then downed Drury's Yiwen Huang, 1:45.98 to 1:46.43, to walk away with the 200 fly title.

West Chester earned a second straight title, this time when Matt Golebiewski, Brendan Fanslau, Chris Salomone and Rod King hit the wall in 6:38.54 for the 800 freestyle relay crown.

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