Drury Women Bring Title Back to Springfield

Bryan Reynold's words described it best - "Our women were spectacular all week." The Drury head coach led the Panthers to an awesome final day that saw them winning four of the night's six events and propelling them to their second NCAA title in three years. There were 12 meet records set out of 21 total events. Fourteen teams scored over 100 points.  This was a deep and exciting meet.  Division II Women’s Swimming is going better than ever.

Women's  Top Ten:
1 Drury University 618.5 2 Wayne State 453.5 3 UC San Diego 425 4 Truman State 333 5 West Chester 233		6 Ouachita Baptist 223 7 Clarion 210.5 8 Saint Cloud St. 158 9 Grand Valley 153.5 10 Henderson State 146

Female Diver of the Meet: Kayla Kelesky, Clarion University

Female Diving Coach of the Meet: David Hrovat, Clarion University

Female Swimmer of the Meet: Yuan Qing Li, Drury University

Female Swim Coach of the Meet, Sean Peters, Wayne State

1650 Freestyle: Erin Dolan proved to have the stamina to win the mile for Drury.  Ashley St. Andrew of Wayne State got out in the lead and held a steady pace, but Erin built her pace through the swim over taking St. Andrew at the 1100 mark.  She pulled away to win in a time of 16:40.18.  St. Andrew finished in second going 16:44.84 and Incarnate Word sophomore, Paulina Alexander’s morning swim of 16:46.40 was good enough for third.  Wayne State did manage to score five swimmers in the event, four in the top eight going 2-4-7-8-12.

100 Freestyle: The women’s 100 free was loaded with many stars of the meet.  Drury’s  Jing Hua and West Chester’s Jackie Borkowski took it out fast in 23.88 and 23.89 and held off the surging field into a close finish.  Hua touching first in 49.82, followed by Borkowski in 49.84 with Drury’s Eunate Garro closing in for third at 49.88 and Truman’s Kate Aherne finished  fourth at 50.01.  Drury’s three finalists racked up enough points to open the lead over Wayne State again by 81 at 484-403.  UC San Diego was third with 320 and Truman State was a solid fourth at 284.5.

200 Backstroke: Just like the morning Yuan Qing Li swam a strong back half.  She just went 1.5 seconds faster at night going out in a relaxing 58.18 and returning in 59.30 to set the 22^nd  record of the meet in 1:57.48.  Teammate Janelle Slattery took the lead at the 100 in 57.xx and held on to break the meet record as well in 1:57.63.  Sarah Watson of Ouachita Baptist raced under the record as well going 1:58.22.

200 Breaststroke: Kendall Bohn of UC San Diego led from start to finish, going out inn 1:03.95 and winning in a time of 2:15.55.  Outside smoke was rising from lane 8 as Kutztown’s Stephanie Jeppesen moved from 4^th at the 100 and smoked her last 50 in 35.92 to earn the silver going 2:16.99.  Drury’s Abbey Musch finished in third with a time of 2:17.42.  The team scores for the top four at this point are pretty secure; Drury, 550; Wayne State, 410; UCSD, 393 and Truman, 299.

3 Meter Diving: Clarion dominated the boards with a 1-2 finish.  Kayla Kelosky earned her second title of the meet with a score of 457.65, incidentally this was Coach David Hrovat’s 31^st national champion.  Teammate Jena Gardone was second by .1 of a point over Saint Cloud’s Kelsey Berkeland scoring 420.10.

400 Freestyle Relay: Three 100 free finalists for Drury were on center stage once again.  A title and meet record were expected and they delivered: Hua, 50.21; Ward, 50.86; Li, 50.43 and Garro, 49.73 split to go 3:21.23.  Truman held off UCSD for second going 3:23.97 and 3:24.24.

Photo Courtesy Drury Sports Information