Truman State Women, Ouachita Baptist Men Lead After Day Two of New South Championships

CLEVELAND, Mississippi, February 16. THE Truman State women and the Ouachita Baptist men lead after day two of the New South Intercollegiate Conference Championships held on Cleveland, Miss. TSU has 782 points, while Delta State is in second with 643 points and Ouachita Baptist owns third with 455 points. For the men, OBU has 648 points just ahead of second-place Missouri-Rolla's 620 points. Truman State is in third with 501 points.

In one of the best finishes of the night, senior Lija Kaleps-Clark finished second in the 200 IM with an NCAA Division II ‘A' cut time of 2:06.25. The mark would have been good enough for the meet record, however Kaleps-Clark finished just behind Rachel Watson, of Ouachita, by eight-hundredths of a second (2:06.17).

Multiple relay victories and tremendous depth from their freestyle swimmers allowed the Bulldogs to amass a sizeable lead on their competition. Truman racked up a total of three NCAA Division II ‘A' cuts and six ‘B' cuts in the first full day of competition.

Both Bulldog relay teams claimed victories and ‘A' cut times on the day.

Truman's 200 free relay team of Kate Aherne, Emily Pufall, Emily Greenwood and Catherine Sonnichsen combined to finish first in the event with a time of 1:36.73. A 400 medley relay squad of Pufall, Greenwood, Erika Anderson and Laura Harp also took first in its event with a season-best time of 3:51.54. In the 400 medley, Greenwood swam the opening leg in a school-record backstroke time of 56.67. That relay team helped get Laura Harp qualified for the national meet bringing Truman's contingent up to 16 swimmers of out the possible 18 to travel.

The Bulldogs freestyle swimmers combined to finish 1-2-3 in the 50 free, led by Pufall's winning ‘B' cut time of 24.28. She was followed by teammates Aherne and Sonnichsen who also earned ‘B' cut times in the event, placing second (24.29) and third (24.53), respectively. Greenwood earned Truman's fourth 50 free ‘B' cut time on the night when she finished fifth in a time of 24.78.

Following Kaleps-Clark's record-setting performance, both Anderson sisters blazed through the water in the 200 IM to record their own ‘B' cut times in the event. Older sister Brittany placed fourth with a time of 2:10.50, followed closely by Erika who finished fifth in 2:11.52.

Adam Pruess and Tom Applegate were the individual stars of the day for Truman, with each recording NCAA ‘B' cut times in their respective events. Pruess's season-best time of 1:56.03 in the 200 IM gave him fourth-place in the event, while Applegate also placed fourth in the 50 free (21.23).

In relay events, the Bulldogs' 400 medley relay squad of Pruess, Robert Fletcher, Alex Totura and Ryan Ferrell combined to touch the wall in a season-best time of 3:27.32 to finish third in the event. Truman also had a fourth-place finish time of 1:24.96 from its 200 free relay squad.

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