Drury Women Absorb Monster Day From Wayne State as Drury Leads Both Men’s, Women’s NCAA D2 Champs

GENEVA, Ohio, March 14. ALTHOUGH the men’s NCAA Division II Championships have moved into charting individually fast times as the Drury men should easily defend their title, the women’s race heated up with a monster day of scoring from Wayne State.

The Drury women remained in the lead after pushing their advantage on day two, but will have a dogfight on its hands as Wayne State made some serious progress this evening with a huge night of diving. Drury leads with 358 points against Wayne State’s 349.

Queens (281.5), West Chester (211.5) and UC San Diego (204) hold third through fifth in the women’s race, while Wingate (153.5), Florida Southern (141), Bridgeport (128), Grand Valley (120) and Cal Baptist (117) make up the rest of the top 10.

Meanwhile, the Drury men are well on their way to defending their team title with 406.5 points. Florida Southern (257) and Wayne State (254.5) are battling for the runner-up spot, while Bridgeport (209.5) and Queens (201) are fourth and fifth after day three. West Chester (195), Wingate (168), UC San Diego (159), Tampa (139) and Grand Valley (132) comprised the other top 10 teams.

UC San Diego’s Anjali Shakya went out fast and never looked back as she topped the women’s 500-yard free with a time of 4:49.51. That clinched the title, and pulled a few points away from Drury, which had been looking to get a title out of runner-up Sarah Pullen, Pullen still managed to take second in 4:50.86, while Delta State’s Melanie Tombers finished third in 4:52.48.

Florida Southern’s Allison Crenshaw (4:52.81), West Chester’s Lauren Carastro (4:56.39), IUP’s Christina Janosky (4:57.18), Queens’ Lillian Gordy (4:57.28) and Lindenwood’s Alecia McGillivray (4:59.51) comprised the rest of the finale as Drury pushed its leading tally to 272.

West Chester’s Victor Polyakov put together a strong 4:23.44 to win the men’s 500-yard free for his third individual victory of the meet. He already took home the 1000 free on night one and the 200 free on night two. Although, he did not challenge his NCAA D2 record in the 500 free from November, when he charged to a 4:20.26.

Missouri S&T’s Jonathan Glaser touched second with a 4:24.31, while West Chester’s Bradley Strathmeyer placed third in 4:25.46.

Bridgeport’s Ivan Sangines (4:25.95), West Chester’s Jared Haley (4:26.94), Drury’s Fahad Alkhaldi (4:28.09), St. Cloud State’s Alex Bryson (4:28.23) and Florida Southern’s Juan Tolosa (4:28.75) also competed in the championship finale.

Cal Baptist’s Mary Hanson delivered a sizzling 52.45 to win the women’s 100-yard backstroke in an NCAA D2 record time. That swim cleared her relay leadoff effort of 52.67 set just last night as the junior can now boast of being both an NAIA record holder and champion as well as an NCAA record holder and champion, having topped the 100-yard back at the 2011 NAIA Championships before Cal Baptist made the transition to the NCAA.

Drury’s Yakaterina Rudenko took second overall in 53.57 with Delta State’s Anastasia Klyarovskaya placing third in 53.76.

Queens’ Hannah Peiffer (54.44), Wayne State’s Ana Azambuja (54.48), Wayne State’s Ellyson Maleski (54.94), Alaska Fairbanks’ Bente Heller (55.24) and Florida Southern’s Lauren Reynolds (55.25) rounded out the top eight. Although Drury pushed its tally to 289 points, Wayne State cut into the lead with 245 points.

NCAA D2 record holder Oscar Pereiro of Bridgeport followed up with a 47.37 to win the men’s 100-yard backstroke. It’s not as fast as his D2 record of 46.99, but was enough to earn the title this evening. Drury’s Jordi Montseny Diez (47.42) and Sean Feher (47.88) kept piling on the points for the Drury men with second and third. That’s Pereiro’s fourth D2 title in the 100 back. He’s one of just three swimmers to ever do it.

Wayne State’s Till Barthel (47.91), Ashland’s Philipp Sikatzki (47.92), Tampa’s Karl Burdis (48.02), Florida Southern’s Luis Rojas (48.04) and Florida Southern’s Thomas Nguyen (48.28) snared the rest of the finale finishes.

Wayne State’s Kayla Scott, who already became the first 1:00 100-yard breaststroker in NCAA D2 history with a 1:00.96 this morning, lowered that record even further with a 1:00.66. It’s just a matter of time before someone breaks the hallowed 1:00 mark in this event. Along with Manuela Ferreira’s sixth-place 1:02.62, Wayne State made up more ground on Drury, which had Agnieszka Ostrowska take third in 1:01.68. After the event, Drury held a 305-278 advantage.

West Chester’s Katharina Fischer (1:01.25), Cal Baptist’s Alena Rumiantceva (1:01.83), Grand Valley’s Danielle Vallier (1:02.24), Edinboro’s Holly Stein (1:02.65) and IUP’s Allyson Mitidieri (1:03.26) comprised the rest of the 100 breast finale.

In an exciting finish, Bridgeport’s Ruben Gimenez took home the D2 trophy with a 52.73 in the men’s 100-yard breast. Wayne State’s Piotr Jachowicz (52.81) and UC San Diego’s Nicholas Korth (52.92) also cleared 53 seconds with second and third-place efforts.

Queens’ Nicholas Eriksson (53.46), Wingate’s Roman Kanyuka (54.32), Drury’s Kacper Pelczynski (54.43), Florida Southern’s Spencer Rowe (54.98) and West Chester’s Bogdan Grebenyuk (55.14) placed fourth through eighth in the finale.

LIU Post’s Joyce Kwok nearly clipped the NCAA D2 record in the womens’ 200-yard fly with a winning time of 1:58.91. That swim just missed Jaclyn Hinson’s 2012 mark of 1:58.84 set for IUP. Wayne State’s Kristina Novichenko turned in a second-place time of 1:59.53 to help cut into the Drury lead even more. Queens’ Hannah Peiffer, doing the 100 back/200 fly double, tied for third with Wingate’s Sofia Petrenko with 1:59.57s.

IUP’s Aniella Janosky claimed fifth in 2:02.55, while Drury’s Hilary Ottaviano placed sixth in 2:02.89. UC San Diego’s Naomi Thomas (2:03.98) and Simon Fraser’s Carmen Nam (2:04.12) collected seventh and eighth-place finishes. After the 200 fly, Drury led Wayne State by just 318-296 with a big set of diving points to come for the Warriors.

Southern Connecticut’s Raymond Cswerko nearly won the men’s 200-yard fly title by a full second with a 1:46.25, while Bridgeport’s Antonio Nunez touched second in 1:47.15. Wingate’s Marko Blazevski completed the top three in 1:47.46.

Drury’s Stanislav Kuzmin (1:47.50), UIndy’s Daniel Chan (1:47.73), Delta State’s Vlad Zinca (1:47.80), Florida Southern’s Raul Garrastazu (1:47.85) and Cal Baptist’s Joshua Hanson (1:49.29) also competed for the national title in the finale.

Wayne State dropped the diving bomb on Drury in the women’s one-meter event, taking a 335-318 lead in what is going to be an intense battle for the team title. Clarion’s Kristin Day won the event with 497.05 points, but Wayne State’s Paige Kortman (466.85), Alex Geddis (438.75) and Elizabeth Rawlings (436.20) took second, seventh and eighth against zero diving points from Drury. Taylor Wiercinski also made the podium with a third-place 466.10 for Grand Valley.

Drury fired back in a big way with a huge advantage in the women’s 800-yard free relay. Tinsley Andrews (1:48.87), Kaylan Gieseke (1:52.00), Leah Reed (1:50.44) and Sarah Pullen (1:48.77) crushed the field and the NCAA D2 record with a 7:20.08. That beat Drury’s 2009 mark of 7:21.89 by a wide margin. Wayne State, meanwhile, finished well back in 10th, providing Drury the change to jump back into the lead, 358-349. With no more diving on day three, it should be really interesting who comes out on top.

Meanwhile, UC San Diego’s Natalie Tang (1:49.70), Anjali Shakya (1:48.77), Colleen Daley (1:51.84) and Catherine Woo (1:51.69) took second in 7:22.00 with West Chester’s Mia Barone (1:51.37), Theresa Hayward (1:51.33), Emily Stang (1:52.48) and Katharina Fischer (1:47.96) turning in a third-place 7:23.14. Notably, Fischer dropped a strong 1:47.96 anchor leg on the field.

Queens closed the night with an NCAA D2 record relay leadoff from all-everything freshman Matt Josa. Josa clocked a 1:34.21, lowering Andrey Seryy’s 2012 record of 1:35.05, and giving Josa yet another D2 record this week. He’s now set three individual marks, along with a 200 back record from December.

Queens went on to win the men’s 800-yard free relay as Josa, Ben Taylor (1:37.39), Felipe Oliveira (1:40.16) and Hayden Kosater (1:37.56) produced a 6:29.32 for the win. Missouri S&T’s Luke Norris (1:37.55), Keith Sponsler (1:36.57), Aljaz Kerc (1:38.94) and Jon Glaser (1:37.79) took second in 6:30.85 with West Chester’s Victor Polyakov (1:36.55), Philip Letcavage (1:39.06), Jared Haley (1:38.38) and Bradley Strathmeyer (1:38.55) earning third in 6:32.54.

Results For: NCAA Division II Championships: Day Three

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