NCAA Division II Championships: Swimmers Take Dead Aim at Division Records

HOUSTON, Texas, March 12. THE hits just kept on coming to the NCAA Division II record books as nearly every event on the docket featured a division record being set during the NCAA Division II Championships held in Houston.

Drury jumped into a strong lead in the women's team title race with 285.5 points, while Wayne State stood second with 206 points. UC San Diego (199), Truman State (163) and Clarion (132.5) rounded out the top five.

Wayne State held a slight 232.5 to 218 lead over Drury heading into the third day of swimming. Limestone sat third with 171.5 points, while Ouachita Baptist and Missouri S&T were tied for fourth with 138 points.

The Drury quartet of Eunate Garro, Jing Hua, Kelsey Ward and Yuan Qing Li broke the division record in the women's 200-yard freestyle to open the evening with a time of 1:32.00. That effort wiped out the 1:33.14 set by Drury back in 2007. The foursome held off a hard-charging UC San Diego team of Anju Shimura, Erinn Deters, Shannon Simonds and Aubrey Panis that finished second in 1:32.16.

Limestone's Craig Jordens, Matt Parsonage, Anders Melin and Goran Majlat broke the preliminary division record the team set with a 1:19.74 in the men's 200-yard free relay when the squad returned to win at night in 1:19.25.

Drury's Li destroyed the women's 400-yard IM division record with a time of 4:15.76 for the win. The performance crushed the 4:18.03 set by Tammy Leane of West Chester in 2006. Paulina Alexander of Incarnate Word provided the closest competition with a 4:18.80.

Another Drury swimmer broke a division record, this time when Kyrillo Fesenko posted a 3:49.71 in the men's 400-yard IM. The swim bested the 3:50.31 set by Jakub Jiracek of Drury back in 2006.

The records continued to fall in the women's 100-yard fly when Drury's Janelle Slattery touched out teammate Li Tao, 53.76 to 53.80, for the win. Both swims beat the previous record of 53.82 set by West Chester's Kathrin Dumitru in 2006.

Ben Michaelson of Southern Connecticut State proved to be one of the few swimmers prior to this year that could set a record to withstand the 2009 onslaught on the books. First, his 50 free record of 19.40 from 2003 remained solvent. This time, his men's 100 fly record of 45.60 from 2003 also stood its ground. Wayne State's Duarte Mourao gave it his best, but settled for the title in 47.25 as he touched out Indianapolis' Manuel Stiem (47.28).

Cal State Bakersfield's Loni Burton also had a division record stand up as her women's 200-yard free standard of 1:47.10 set in 2005 withstood the run by Tampa's Jessie Bardin, who claimed the national title in 1:47.75.

Drury's Sergiy Bilov won the men's 200-yard free in 1:36.74, but the time wasn't good enough to take down the oldest NCAA Division II men's record on the books as Jon Keppeler's 1:35.81 from 1993 remained on the books.

During the women's one-meter diving break, Clarion's Kayla Kelosky edged Kelsey Berkelan, 440.60 to 437.85, for the title. Clarion's Jena Gardone took third with 435.80 points.

Drury's Slattery, Xaio Juan You, Tao and Garro ripped off a division-record time of 3:43.11 to win the women's 400-yard medley relay. The performance eliminated the 3:45.36 set by Ouachita Baptist during prelims for the record. Slattery just missed the division record in the 100 back with her leadoff of 54.78. Drury's Jing Hua owns the record with a 54.73 from 2007.

Wayne State's Sean Smith, Jesper Akesson, Mourao and Sebastian Rzepa bettered the division record of 3:16.33 set by Ouachita Baptist during prelims with a time of 3:14.15 to win the men's 400-yard medley relay.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x