Drury Under Fire for Erroneous Relay Entry at NCAA Championships

PHOENIX, Arizona, May 7. DRURY University head swimming coach Brian Reynolds has been given what the NCAA is calling a “public reprimand” for an error that involved entering an ineligible swimmer into this year's NCAA Division II swimming and diving championships.

According to the NCAA, a student-athlete was listed as part of the 400 free relay for Drury at the meet, despite not being eligible for the meet. Once the mistake was noted prior to the meet, this resulted in a reseeding of the event that drew the ire of the national committee that runs the competition.

Neither Drury nor the NCAA have named the swimmer that was incorrectly entered in the event. Drury would win the men's 400 free relay with a new Division II record time of 2:55.26 to put an exclamation point on the team title the Panthers won, their ninth consecutive victory.

Below, the official press release from the NCAA:
A public reprimand and certain penalties have been issued for the Drury University head men's and women's swimming and diving coach Brian Reynolds for misconduct during the 2013 NCAA Division II Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving Championships.

Specifically, Coach Reynolds was found to have engaged in misconduct by including an ineligible student-athlete as a member of Drury's men's 400-free relay team that was entered for selection consideration to the 2013 men's swimming and diving championships. The Division II Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving Committee was notified of this information after the initial selections were completed and posted, forcing the need to reselect the entire men's swimming field and resulting in two additional student-athletes being selected outside of the field size limits.

“The men's and women's swimming and diving committee was disappointed with the actions taken by the coach to include an ineligible student-athlete for consideration in selections to the championship,” said Marie Scovron, chair of the Division II Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving Committee and associate athletic director and senior woman administrator at Florida Southern College. “We believe this behavior served to discredit the selection process of the championship.”

Drury responded today with the following statement:

“When entering the 2013 NCAA-II Men's Swimming and Diving Championships, Drury University inadvertently entered an ineligible student-athlete. When Drury University was notified of this mistake, our coaching staff immediately notified the NCAA-II Swimming and Diving Committee of the error. Unfortunately, the entry mistake [affected] the selection process and caused a re-selection of the meet. While Drury University regrets this mistake, we believe the intention of our coaching staff was not to deceive or influence the selection process to the NCAA-II Championships. We are working with our coaching staff to insure that this mistake does not occur again.”

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