CRAWFORDSVILLE, Ind. - It was moving day for the Drury men's and women's swimming and diving squads, as they took big steps each toward defending their Great Lakes Valley Conference Championships with impressive efforts Thursday night at the Crawfordsville Aquatics Center.

The Drury women picked up victories in three of the four evening events, getting a kick-start by a victory from Rebekah Laupp earlier in the afternoon in the 1-meter diving, and have amassed 440 points to 311.5 from second-place Truman State. William Jewell is third with 213 points, followed by Indianapolis (184) and Lewis (174.5) to compete the top five.

On the men's side, the Panthers - who led by a single point over Missouri S&T after Wednesday's abbreviated schedule - expanded that to 84 points after Thursday's effort. Drury has 345 points to 261 by second-place S&T. Indianapolis (227), Lewis (205) and William Jewell (184) complete the top five.

The DU men also won three of the four evening events Thursday, but it was the incredible depth display by both Panther squads that produced their current leads.

It started for the DU women with a 1-2 finish in the 500 Free by Sarah Pullen and Allie Reynolds, was boosted by a 2-3-5-6 finish (paced by Gretchen Stein's runner-up finish) in the 200 IM, and then just got nutty when the Panthers finished 1-2-3-5-6-7 in the 50 Free, with Wen Xu edging Wai Ting Yu for the victory and Katya Rudenko third.

For good measure, the DU women finished off the night with a 200 Free Relay win from Rudenko, Tessa Tilton, Xu and Janice Poon.

The DU men got a victory from Banjo Borja in the 200 IM, then finished 1-2-3-6-8 in the 50 Free, with Sean Feher beating Daniel Rzadkowski to the wall for the win.

The Panthers finished the night the right way, too, with a victory in the 200 Relay, with Rzadkowski, Samuel Olson, Rodrigo Caceres and Luka Matacin.

Day Three of four of the GLVC Championships will begin with prelims Friday morning at 10:45 a.m. (EST). Fans can follow the action in a free live webcast at www.glvcsports.com/watch.