Truman State Women, Missouri-Rolla Men Lead at New South Championships

CLEVELAND, Mississippi, February 16. AFTER the third day of competition at the NSISC Championships meet, Truman State leads the women's meet, while Missouri-Rolla moved into the lead for the men.

After winning four out of the six events contested on the third day, the Truman women's swim is in complete control of the team standings of the seven team event. The Bulldogs lead the way with 1,337 points, outpacing host school Delta State (1,210) by 127 points.

Truman started the day with yet another dominating 1-2-3 finish in an event, as it claimed the top three podium spots in the 400 IM. Lija Kaleps-Clark continued her strong performance at the conference meet with a season-best time of 4:33.93 to win the event. She was followed by teammates Lindsay Vaughn and Katie Welsh who finished second (4:36.06) and third (4:36.32), respectively. All three swimmers achieved NCAA Division II ‘B' cut times in the event.

In the second event of the evening, the 100 butterfly, Laura Harp and Nicole Sharp earned two more ‘B' cut times for the purple and white. Harp's time of 57.74 was good enough to place her second in the event, while Sharp swam to a fourth-place finish in a season-best time of 58.35.

Emily Greenwood swam to first-place honors in the 100 backstroke, blazing an ‘A' cut time of 57.13 to beat out Sarah Watson of Ouachita Baptist by .33 seconds. Emily Chadwick earned fourth-place podium spot with a ‘B' cut time of 1:00.10.

Truman trounced its competition in the 200 free. Pufall recorded her second victory of the evening when she touched the wall in a season-best ‘A' cut time of 1:53.76. Following her closely were four more Bulldog provisional qualifiers, as the trio of Polette (2nd, 1:54.21), Dempsey (3rd, 1:55.29) and Brunkow (1:56.42) each scored ‘B' cut times in the event. Stehpanie Robinson recorded the Bulldogs' fifth 200 free ‘B' cut time, finishing second in the consolation heat (11th overall) with a season-best time of 1:57.29.

In the second-to-last individual event of the day, the 100 breaststroke, the Anderson sisters once again teamed up to earn big points for the Bulldogs. After older sister Brittany finished fourth yesterday in the 200 IM, followed by Erika's fifth-place showing in the event, the roles were reversed in Friday's competition. This time, it was Erika who swam to a higher finish, placing third in the 100 breaststroke with a ‘B' cut time of 1:06.44. Brittany finished just five-tenths of a second behind her sister to earn a fifth-place ‘B' cut time of 1:06.94.

A Bulldog 800 free relay squad of Dempsey, Pufall, Kaleps-Clark and Polette won the lone relay event of the day. The quartet combined to swim an ‘A' cut time of 7:40.97.

Ouachita Baptist sits in third-place with 870 points, followed by Henderson State (673), Incarnate Word (451), Drury (154) and Lambuth (9).

In the men's meet, a strong third day performance moved the UMR swimming team into the lead.

Friday's efforts included the addition of two more automatic qualifiers for the NCAA Division II Championships next month, as Andrew Trowbridge and Andy Shelley earned berths to the meet as part of the winning 800-yard freestyle relay performance. They combined with Mark Chamberlain and Matt Hug to win the race in 6:51.38 and won the race by more than six seconds over Truman State.

UMR got second place showings from Travis Stensby in the 100-yard backstroke in 50.96 seconds and Matt Adams in the 100-yard breaststroke in 57.24 seconds and the 100-butterfly in 50.14 seconds. All three times were better than the necessary standard for automatic qualification for nationals, but both individuals have already qualified for the meet.

Dustin Spieker also had a runner-up finish Friday in the 400-yard individual medley with a time of 4:06.47, while Stensby also finished third in the 100-butterfly with a time of 50.31 seconds.

Shelley added a fourth place finish in the 200-freestyle in 1:43.58 and Kyle Kammer took fourth in the 100-back in 52.22. Mark Chamberlain came in fifth in the 200-freestyle with a time of 1:44.75, while Brian Howell finished seventh in the 100-back in 53.24 seconds, Chris Scheuber took seventh in the 100-butterfly in 51.01, Hammond was seventh in the 400-IM in 4:10.53 and David Calcara finished eighth in 58.63.

UMR's point total stands at 1,149 heading into the final day, over 100 points more than Delta State and over 200 better than what Truman State has through three days.

With Trowbridge and Shelley added to the list, the Miners now have 12 individuals qualified for the national meet that will take place next month in Buffalo, N.Y.

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