INDIANAPOLIS – Drury University has extended its lead in both the men’s and women’s competition after the second of four days at the 2017 GLVC Swimming and Diving Championships in large part due to setting an additional three records Thursday at the Crawfordsville Aquatic Center in Crawfordsville, Indiana.
The Panthers moved from a 25.5-point lead after day one to a 64.5-point advantage on the men’s side after today and an astounding 80-point edge in the women’s race that was just a 19-point lead following opening night action.
For the men, Drury has accumulated 407 points to best second-place Missouri S&T (342.5). University of Indianapolis remains third in the race with 258.5 points, followed by Truman State University (206), Lewis University (182), William Jewell College (158), University of Missouri-St. Louis (133), McKendree University (117), Bellarmine University (57) and Maryville University (36).
Drury scored 458 points on the women’s side, while Truman State (378) and Indianapolis (264) sit second and third, respectively. William Jewell (205) and Lewis (158) are fourth and fifth, followed by Quincy University (124), Maryville (96), Bellarmine (93), Missouri-St. Louis (89) and McKendree (61).
There were 12 GLVC champions crowned Thursday, with six of those race winners setting new league standards.
The medal ceremonies began with an afternoon of diving where Indianapolis freshman Payton Staman set a GLVC record for the men’s 1-Meter boards with a 493.15 point total. Taking gold on the women’s 3-Meter board was Maryville’s Kaylee Fox, who tallied 358.75. In fact, her teammates Rachel Bullington and Dalis McGreevy finished second and third, respectively, for the Saints’ sweep.
The evening swimming finals started with the women’s 200 Freestyle Relay in which Drury broke its own record in a time of 1:32.23. The Drury men followed with a winning time of 1:20.84 in the same event.
In the 400 Individual Medley, Panthers’ Ella Bryan touched first at 4:25.37, just barely ahead of William Jewell’s Ayleen Burt at 4:25.65. Truman State’s Will Shanel, the GLVC record holder in the 400 IM (3:48.56), didn’t quite beat his own time from a year ago but did win gold by five seconds, clocking in at 3:49.81.
Next came the women’s 100 Butterfly that saw Drury’s Vera Johansson break the league record during prelims in a time of 54.22, but teammate Bailee Nunn bested that mark in the finals with a 53.73 clip for a new standard. Johansson finished second in 54.16. Drury picked up another win on the men’s side, as Jun Han Kim was just out of reach of the Conference record (48.04) set by a Panther in 2015 but had enough for first in 48.20.
Drury’s Erica Dahlgren kept the momentum going with a 1:50.13 victory in the 200 Free before Missouri S&T’s Jon Glaser set a record in the men’s race with his winning time of 1:35.42 that broke former teammate Keith Sponsler’s mark of 1:36.54 set in 2016.
Wrapping things up for the night was the 400 Medley Relay where a record was broken in both the men’s and women’s heats. Drury capped off the night with one more gold medal and one more GLVC record, as the foursome’s 3:37.99 was almost five seconds faster than the 2015 Drury record (3:42.29). Indianapolis were the victors and new league record holders on the men’s side with a 3:14.33 to out-touch the 2016 Drury record of 3:15.02.
All first- and second-place finishers are awarded first- and second-team All-GLVC honors, respectively.
Day three of the GLVC Championships begins Friday with preliminaries of the 500 Freestyle, 100 Backstroke, 100 Breaststroke and 200 Butterfly, beginning at 10:30 a.m. ET. Non-produced bonus coverage of the preliminaries will begin at 10:15 a.m. on the GLVC Sports Network, while full coverage begins at 1 p.m. for women’s 1-meter and men’s 3-meter diving, followed by swimming finals at 5:30 p.m.
For more information, log on to GLVCsports.com/swim17, watch for free at GLVCSN.com or follow along on Twitter and Instagram at @GLVCsports, hashtag #GLVCswim and #GLVCchamps.
