GREENSBORO, N.C.– The Drury women’s swimming & diving team is in second place while the men’s team is in third after the first day of competition was completed on Wednesday at the NCAA-II National Championship meet at the Greensboro Aquatic Center in Greensboro, North Carolina.
The Drury women’s team has 118 points and is behind first place Queens (NC) who finished the day with 140. Oklahoma Baptist is in third with 69 points.
In the men’s event, the Panthers have 75 points and trail Queens’ (NC) total of 127 points and Oklahoma Baptist’s 79.
Drury’s Bailee Nunn captured a national championship in the 200-yard individual medley as the Panthers finished first and second in the event. The sophomore from Marshfield had a winning time of 1:57.55 while Zuza Chwadeczko (fah-DETCH-coe) finished less than a second behind at 1:58.19.
The Drury women’s 200 medley relay battled Queens (NC) in a race decided by 0.03 seconds, and both teams swam faster than Drury’s NCAA-II record-setting time from last season. Queens got to the wall first with a time of 1:38.65 while the Panthers, with Katya Rudenko, Chwadeczko, Vera Johnansson and Abigail Lunzmann came in second (1:38.68).
Erica Dahlgren picked up the first points of the meet for the Drury women’s team with a seventh place finish in the 1000 freestyle. The sophomore from Gothenburg, Sweden posted a time of 9:58.76.
Vera Johansson was edged in the 50 freestyle by 0.04 seconds to finish second. Johansson’s time of 22.79 was a fraction of a second behind Queens’ Wanda Dollmayer’s winning time of 22.75. Drury also had a sixth place finish in the event from Rudenko (23.08), and a 12th place finish from Lunzmann (23.38).
In the men’s championship, the Panthers finished fourth, sixth and 11th in the 1000 freestyle. Alex Reinbrecht led Drury with a fourth place finish posting a time of 9:08.43 while Fredrico Brumana was sixth (9:11.84) and Joan Casanovas was 11th (9:16.01).
Freshman Pavel Semochkin came in sixth place in the 200 individual medley. The Russian from St. Petersburg completed the event with a time of 1:47.67.
Drury’s 200 medley relay team had a time of 1:28.01 to finish fifth. Semochkin, Andrea Bazzoli, Ryan Walker, and Rodrigo Caceres were 3.82 seconds behind first place Queens (NC).
The 2018 NCAA-II men’s and women’s swimming & diving national championship continues on Thursday with time trials at 9 a.m. (Central) and finals at 5 p.m. at the Greensboro Aquatic Center.
