(Drury Sports Information)
SPRINGFIELD – The Drury men’s and women’s swimming & diving season opens this weekend at the D-2 Showcase hosted by Florida Tech in Melbourne, Florida.
The season opens with the Drury men’s team ranked second in the nation and the women’s squad ranked number one in the CSCAA / NCAA-II preseason poll. Both squads were the national runner-up last year.
The DU men’s team returns 15 swimmers from 2016-17 including two-time national champion and last year’s Great Lakes Valley Conference Freshman of the Year Joan Casanovas.
The Drury women’s squad brings back 17 from their team a year ago. Among the returners are Bailey Nunn, last year’s GLVC women’s Swimmer of the Year and Co-Freshman of the Year, Erica Dahlgren, Co-Freshman of the Year in the GLVC with Nunn, and three-time Olympian Katya Rudenko.
Head coach Brian Reynolds will enter his 35th season coaching the Drury men’s team and 2017-18 will be his 30th year leading the women’s squad.
Defending national champion Queens (NC) is the number one ranked team in the men’s poll. Two other GLVC members are in the top 25 with Indianapolis ranked 13th and Missouri S&T is ranked 20th.
The Drury women’s team was atop the national poll by three points over Queens (NC). Truman State out of the GLVC is ranked 8th and Indianapolis is 16th.
