The Missouri State men wrapped up a 2-for-2 season in their ‘Duel in the Pool’ series with Drury, beating the Panthers 126-108 on Thursday night.
The Drury women, meanwhile, topped Missouri State in a clean 13-for-13 sweep.
Men’s Meet
The meet was a close one at the top, with the team’s splitting the relays and Missouri State taking 7 events to Drury’s 6.
Drury was actually able to limit one of Missouri State’s biggest threats, Paul Le, holding him to a pair of runner-up finishes, but Missouri State’s distance corps made up for it with great performances in the 500 and 1000 frees.
The Bears started off the night with back-to-back wins, nabbing some early momentum. First Le went up against Drury’s Sean Feher leading off the medley. Feher, one of the nation’s best backstrokers in Division II, was actually able to top Le, a Division I NCAA qualifier and the Missouri State school record-holder, 22.55 to 22.72. But the Bears roared back to win the event in 1:29.60 thanks to a 19.95 anchor leg from Uvis Kalnins.
Directly after came the 1000 free, where Missouri State’s Miguel Davila took a tight win over Drury’s Alec Morris, 9:26.46 to 9:27.87.
Later on, the Missouri State distance machine came up big with a 1-2 in the 500 free. That race saw freshman Ethan Bresette take the win (4:35.06) with Davila second.
Drury, meanwhile, dominated the shorter freestyle races. Samuel Olson doubled up, including a big 50 free win over Missouri State’s Le, 20.35 to 20.37. Olson returned to win the 100 free in a battle with his own teammate Daniel Rzadkowski. Rzadkowski, who won the 200 free early in the meet, didn’t quite have the speed to match Olson’s 44.67, which broke a pool record.
Missouri State broke a pool record of its own, courtesy of Kalnins. The junior was dominant in the 200 IM, going 1:48.11 to smash a pool record.
Also breaking pool records were Drury’s Feher and Kacper Pelczynski. Feher won one final battle with Le, taking the 100 back in 48.09. Le was 48.37, also under his old pool record. Pelczynski won the 100 breast late in the meet, going 54.52.
The Drury 200 free relay also broke a pool record, going 1:21.19 with a 19.89 split from Feher.
Missouri State got a big boost in diving, with Garrett Nevels winning both events and leading 1-2-3s, as Drury did not enter any male divers. Also winning for the Bears was butterflyer Vitaly Baryshock, who went 48.82 to take the 100 fly.
Women’s Meet
While the Drury men fell behind early, their women dominated from the opening bell, sweeping all 13 events and breaking one pool record.
That mark came in the opening event, as the 200 medley relay team of Katya Rudenko, Lucie Jolly, Wai Ting Yu and Kaylan Gieseke went 1:44.51. That came courtesy of big back and fly splits – Rudenko was 26.19 on back and Yu 24.09 on fly.
Highlighting the domination were a pair of back-to-back wins from Yu and sophomore Ariel Xu. Early on, Yu came off her medley relay split to win the 200 free (1:52.75) and Xu followed that right up with a 50 free win (23.41).
Just two events later, Yu was back to win the 100 fly in a quick 56.30, and Xu got her second win in the next event, going 51.55 for the 100 free title.
The defending Division II national champions showed their ferocity against Division I’s Missouri State, even going so far as to 1-2 the final relay. That event, the 200 free relay, saw Xu split 23.82 on the anchor leg to close the door.
Medley relay winners Jolly and Rudenko also got in on the action individually. Rudenko took home the 100 back (57.19) in a blowout, while Jolly won the 100 breast (1:05.63) to seal the individual sweep in the meet’s last non-relay race.
Drury diver Rebekah Laupp also did her part, sweeping the 1-meter and 3-meter boards.
Other Panther winners included Allie Reynolds in the 1000 free (10:26.15), Gretchen Stein in the 200 IM (2:05.85) and Sarah Pullen in the 500 free (5:01.49).
