NCAA Division II Championships: Drury Earns Early Leads; Pair of D2 Records Fall

CANTON, Ohio, March 10. THE first night of short course yard action at the NCAA Division II Championships is in the bag in Canton. By the end of the evening, a pair of NCAA Division II records fell by the wayside, while favorite Drury had a lead in both the men's and women's team title races.

Drury, which has won two of the past three women's titles and five since 1997, finished the day in the lead with 156 points. Wayne State stood a close second with 143 points as potentially the only team that can catch Drury. Clarion (72) and West Chester 70.5) look like the early favorites to battle it out for third place, while UC San Diego (59) finished the day in fifth.

The men's race proved to be much closer with Drury ending the day with a 79-73 lead over Incarnate Word. Drury has won the last five titles, including seven of the last 11. Ouachita Baptist (68), Wayne State (66) and Wingate (60) rounded out the top five title contenders after day one.

Truman's Kate Aherne posted the first NCAA D2 record of the meet with a 2:00.56 in the women's 200 IM. That performance clipped her previous record of 2:00.61 set a year ago. UCSD's Alexandra Henley finished second in 2:02.04, while Drury's Yuan Qing Li earned third in 2:02.31.

West Chester's Jackie Borkowski snatched the women's 50 free title in 22.87, just missing Eunate Garro's 2009 NCAA D2 record of 22.64. Aherne demonstrated some strong versatility with a second-place time of 23.10 after setting the D2 mark in the women's 200 IM. Ashland's Julie Widmann earned third in 23.23.

Drury's Jun Han Kim followed with a 1:48.18 to 1:48.24 touchout triumph over Wayne State's Joaquin Abascal Gallegos for the men's 200 IM. Wingate's Kyle Corcoran completed the top three in 1:49.68. One of the potential title contenders, Ouachita's Nelson Silva, drew a disqualification.

Wayne State's Ashley St. Andrew claimed the first national title of the meet with a 9:57.48 in the women's 1000-yard free. That time came within eight second of the 2009 NCAA D2 record of 9:49.09 set by Kristen Frost of Southern Connecticut State. Drury's Erin Dolan finished second in 10:05.81, while SCSU's Cody Hall placed third in 10:09.12.

Drury's Chris Jacobsen cruised in the men's 1000-yard free with a winning time of 9:08.90. He finished well ahead of Incarnate Word's Conrado Chede, who snagged second-place in 9:14.45. Tampa's Chris O'Linger wound up third in 9:16.08.

UCSD's Dan Perduw checked in with a 20.07 to narrowly beat Wingate's Mason Norman (20.10) for the men's 50 free title. The pair flipped places during earlier qualifying as Norman paced prelims with a 19.79 and Perdew touched in 19.92. Ouachita's Radu Badalac claimed third in 20.13.

Wayne State went 1-3 in women's three-meter diving. Cassie Chetosky won the overall title with 503.30 points, while teammate Carly Sevald finished third with 454.05 points. Clarion's Kayla Kelosky split the difference with a second-place 482.65-point tally.

The women's 200-yard medley relay NCAA D2 record didn't stand a chance. Wayne State and Drury both put on a show in the event, with both teams clearing the 1:42.30 set by Drury last year. WSU's team of Sara Franklin, Courtney Roberts, Ana Gonzalez Pena and Ashley Corriveau had just a little more in the tank than Drury, and closed out the night with a 1:41.46 for the win and the record. Drury's Jing Hua, Abbey Musch, Li Tao and Kelsey Ward placed second in 1:41.77 despite Ward's strong 22.83 on the anchor. Lock Haven' Amanda Terray, Britt Rehrig, Jenna Brooks and Sam Durham finished third in 1:43.83.

Ouachita's Silva, Razvan Goga, Daniel Karkoska and Badalac won the men's 200 medley relay going away with a 1:28.24. Ashland's Matt Cook, Tyler Remmel, Sean McGraw and Ben Monti placed second in 1:29.90, while Drury's Alexander Protsenko, Jesse Lawrence, Kim and Gerrit Thomsen earned third in 1:30.10.

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