Drury Builds Healthy Leads in Men’s, Women’s Races at NCAA D2s as Record Book Gets Smoked

GENEVA, Ohio, March 13. ANOTHER record-setting night went down at the SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio, with records falling routinely. Meanwhile, defending champions Drury built up leads in both the men’s and the women’s team title races.

At the end of the night, defending champion Drury finished 30 points up on Wayne State, 246-216, in the women’s team race. Queens (198), West Chester (137.5) and UC San Diego (132) rounded out the top five. Wingate (116), Bridgeport (95), Florida Southern (87), Grand Valley (83) and Alaska Fairbanks (80) comprised the rest of the top 10.

Drury’s men extended their leading point tally to 276.5 after a strong day of swimming. Wayne State stood second with 182 points, while Florida Southern held third with 165 points. Queens (143) and UC San Diego (135) sat fourth and fifth. Bridgeport (120.5), Tampa (103), West Chester (102), Wingate (102) and Grand Valley (92) ranked sixth through 10th.

A pair of NCAA D2 records fell during the sprint free relay as Wayne State made a statement to start the night in the women’s 200-yard free relay. Ana Azambuja ripped off a 22.54 leadoff, besting the 2012 mark of 22.56 set by Melissa Gates of California (PA) in leadoff duty. Gloria Martinez Perez (22.99), Kayla Scott (23.23) and Ellyson Maleski (22.88) wound up with an NCAA D2 record of 1:31.64, eclipsing the 1:32.00 set by Drury back in 2009.

Drury’s Yakaterina Rudenko (23.20), Tinsley Andrews (22.87), Kaylan Gieseke (23.56) and Wai Ting Yu (22.17) nearly made up the difference with Yu blistering the anchor leg, but fell short with a second-place time of 1:31.80. That’s now a school record, betting the former D2 record.

UC San Diego’s Sierra Robbins (23.37), Colleen Daley (23.00), Austine Lee (23.04) and Anjali Shakya (23.09) finished second in the historic swim with a 1:32.50.

Queens (1:33.03), Wingate (1:33.63), CSU East Bay (1:33.86), Florida Southern (1:34.32) and West Chester (1:34.36) rounded out the championships finale.

Drury pipped the NCAA D2 record in the men’s 200-yard free relay as Daniel Rzadkowski (20.39), Sean Feher (19.56) and Samuel Olson (20.10) set the stage for a sizzling anchor leg by Nicholas McCarthy, who dropped an 18.95 en route to the record-setting swim of 1:19.00. That time undercut the previous mark of 1:19.20 from Drury last year where McCarthy leadoff.

Bridgeport’s Oscar Pereiro (19.91), Ruben Gimenez (19.18), Ivan Capan (20.51) and Vladislav Paskas (20.23) took the battle for second place with a 1:19.83, just touching out Tampa’s foursome. Tampa’s Khlaid Aldaboos (20.44), Jeremy Parker (19.73), Runar Borgen (19.99) and Jordan Augier (19.69) wound up a close third with a time of 1:19.85.

UC San Diego (1:20.36), Wayne State (1:20.45), Limestone (1:20.52), Missouri S&T (1:20.82) and Saint Leo (1:21.52) raced their way to fourth through eighth in the A final.

Wayne State won another head-to-head battle with Drury in the team-title race as Kristina Novichenko threw down a 4:16.08 for the women’s 400-yard IM victory, while Drury’s Agnieszka Ostrowska picked up second in the 4:16.72. For Wayne State to hold off Drury in the women’s team race, it’s extremely important to win these head-to-head events.

Delta State’s Melanie Tombers snared third overall in 4:16.97 to round out what proved to an an exciting top three in the distance medley.

Queens’ Caroline Arakelian (4:17.54), Bridgeport’s Adeline Martin (4:19.57), Ashland’s Hannah Mattar (4:20.94), IUP’s Allyson Mitidieri (4:22.59) and Colorado Mesa’s Briana Purkapile (4:26.58) closed out the championship heat.

Wingate’s Marko Blazevski dominated the men’s 400-yard IM with a winning time of 3:48.67. Coming into today, he’d never broken the 3:50 mark, then turned in a 3:49.81 in prelims. Tonight, he crashed right through another barrier, coming up just a second short of Piotr Jachowicz’s D2 record of 3:47.62 from last year.

Southern Connecticut’s Raymon Cswerko touched in 3:51.83 for a secure second-place finish, while West Chester’s David McCormick overtook Nova Southeastern’s Marco Aldabe, 3:53.17 to 3:53.47, for third-place points.

Grand Valley’s Sven Kardol (3:55.14), UC San Diego’s Zachary Yong (3:55.87), Drury’s Kacper Pelczynski (3:57.70) and Lake Erie’s Julian Milinkovskyi (3:58.07) also earned A final points.

Missouri S&T’s Ethan Goldfarb and Lindenwood’s Felix Eigel did battle in the consolation heat with Goldfarb winning 3:52.06 to 3:52.34, both of which would have finished third in the big final.

Queens’ Hannah Peiffer used an incredible backhalf to track down Bridgeport’s Armony Dumur for the women’s 100-yard fly title and NCAA D2 title. Peiffer turned third at the wall in 25.14, and managed a 28.31 to win in 53.45. That time cleared Li Tao’s 2011 record of 53.55. Dumur also beat the previous record with a 24.76, 28.75 split time of 53.51 for second. LIU Post’s Joyce Kwok wound up third overall in 53.94 as the only other sub-54 second time.

Alaska Fairbanks’ Margot Adams (54.62), UC San Diego’s Naomi Thomas (54.69), NMU’s Deborah Lawrence (55.38), CSU East Bay’s Caitlin Denise (55.44) and UC San Diego’s Jaclyn Amog (55.70) also vied for the NCAA title in the finale.

Queens’ Matt Josa kept up his campaign for Swimmer of the Year as a freshman by claiming his second D2 title in as many days. After winning the 200-yard IM last night, Josa returned this evening with a blazing 45.45 to win the 100-yard fly. The effort beat Ben Michaelson’s 45.60 from 11 years ago, and gave Josa his third D2 record of the year. This week, he’s already downed the 100 fly and 200 IM to go along with his 200 back mark in December. More impressive is that Josa won by more than two seconds tonight.

Another notable is that Josa’s swim tonight would have placed third at the 2013 NCAA Division I Championships. Josa is definitely a Division I talent who chose to stay home and train with SwimMAC in Charlotte while representing Queens at the D2 level. Additionally, according to USA Swimming’s stats department, Josa is now the second-fastest 18-and-under swimmer in the event behind Tom Shields’ 44.91 from 2010.

Wayne State’s Soren Holm touched second in 47.63 with Drury’s Stanislav Kuzmin earning third in 47.81. Ashland’s Philipp Sikatzki (47.87) and Saint Leo’s Matheus Assis (47.97) also beat 48 seconds to placed fourth and fifth.

Florida Southern’s Allan Gutierrez (48.22), Florida Southern’s Edson Lima (48.28) and Delta State’s Vlad Zinca (49.19) pocketed the rest of the championship heat finishes.

In one of the most exciting finishes anyone is likely to see, the top four finishers in the women’s 200-yard freestyle finished within .09 of each other with West Chester’s Katharina Fischer and Drury’s Tinsley Andrews tying with matching 1:48.48s. Wingate’s Sofia Petrenko placed third in 1:48.51 with teammate Kathryn Pheil earning fourth in 1:48.57. That’s Fischer’s second win of the meet, having taken home the 200 IM last night.

UC San Diego’s Anjali Shakya (1:49.25), Queens’ Lillian Gordy (1:49.29), Florida Southern’s Allison Crenshaw (1:49.79) and Drury’s Sarah Pullen (1:49.97) finished fifth through eighth.

West Chester’s Victor Polyakov, who already topped the 1000 free last night and set the 500 free D2 record with a 4:20.26 earlier this season, raced to a second title this week with a 1:35.25 in the men’s 200-yard free. That’s just short of Andrey Seryy’s 2012 record of 1:35.05, and definitely demonstrates Polyakov’s remarkable range even from out in lane 1.

Wayne State’s Till Barthell finished second in the event with a 1:35.96, while Grand Valley’s Gianni Ferrero picked up third in 1:36.17.

Wingate’s Leif-Henning Kluever (1:36.83), Drury’s Albert Lloyd (1:37.12), Wayne State’s Kristian Larsen (1:37.65), Queens’ Ben Taylor (1:38.07) and Florida Southern’s Luis Rojas (1:38.43) comprised the rest of the championship eight.

Clarion had a big 1-2 finish in the men’s one-meter diving event with Collin Vest winning with 552.40 points and Heath Calhoun taking second with 551.90 points. St. Cloud State’s Tyler Magalis rounded out the top three with 548.85 points.

Two more NCAA D2 records fell in the women’s 400-yard medley relay to close the night. Drury’s Yakaterina Rudenko (53.04), Agniezska Ostrowska (1:00.75), Wai Ting Yu (54.11) and Sarah Pullen (51.39) finished with a time of 3:39.29 to win the finale. That performance smashed the 3:40.45 set by Wayne State back in 2011.

Meanwhile, Cal Baptist’s Mary Hanson’s 52.67 undercut the D2 record in the 100-yard backstroke of 52.90 set by Sara Franklin as a leadoff in 2011 with her team of Alena Rumiantceva (1:01.18), Kyndal Terwilliger (55.73) and Patricia Hapsari (50.01) posted a second-place time of 3:39.59, alson under the former relay record.

Wayne State’s Ellyson Maleski (55.21), Kayla Scott (1:00.70), Kristina Novichenko (54.69) and Kei Prentis (52.08) took third in 3:42.68. Wingate (3:44.03), Queens (3:44.24), Grand Valley (3:45.94), UC San Diego (3:46.28) and Alaska Fairbanks (3:46.76) finished fourth through eighth.

Queens turned out the lights on night two with an NCAA D2 record in the men’s 400-yard medley relay. Zachary Phelps (49.30), Nicholas Eriksson (52.42), Matt Josa (45.46) and Hayden Kosater (43.92) posted a 3:11.10 to clip Wayne State’s Juan David Molina Perez (48.69), Piotr Jachowicz (52.81), Soren Holm (46.19) and Kristian Larsen (43.66) for the win as Wayne State took second in 3:11.35. Both times beat the previous NCAA D2 mark of 3:11.93 set by Grand Canyon last year.

Bridgeport’s Oscar Pereiro (48.06), Vyaslav Fattakhov (54.10), Didac Matsuyama (47.81) and Ruben Gimenez (42.44) finished third with a 3:12.41. Drury (3:12.72), Tampa (3:14.35), Delta State (3:14.89), Florida Southern (3:16.17) and Grand Valley (3:17.75) made up the rest of the finale.

Results For: NCAA Division II Championships: Day Two

Name*

Email*

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