INDIANAPOLIS - Boosted by a national record-setting effort in the final event of the evening, the 200 Medley Relay, the Drury women's squad has snagged a narrow, early lead after the opening day of the NCAA-II National Swimming & Diving Championships at the IUPUI Natatorium Wednesday night.

The two-time defending champion DU women have 128 points after Day One, leading second-place Queens (123) by five. Wingate is third with 67, Nova Southeastern fourth (57) and UC-San Diego (51) to complete the top five of the 25 schools that earned points on Wednesday.

In the men's competition, 10-time defending national champion Drury finds itself in third place, with Lindenwood and Grand Valley State amassing 94 points to 91 by the Panthers. Queens is fourth with 72.5 - hampered by a costly disqualification due to a clerical error in the 200 Medley Relay - and Wayne State is fifth with 69 points among the 24 men's teams that scored on the first of four days of competition.

The highlight of the night for both DU squads was the 1:40.09, new NCAA-II record time put up in the 200 Medley Relay by Katya Rudenko, Zuzanna Chwadeczko, Vera Johannson and Wen Xu to close the evening. It broke the old record of 1:40.45 set .. by last year's Drury four, including Rudenko.

 

Other top performances for the DU women included a second place by Allie Reynolds in the 1000 Free, as she shaved nearly 15 seconds off her previous career best, finishing in 10:00.31, with freshman Megan Ouhl finishing sixth in the same race; and a second and fourth from Xu and Wai Ting Yu in the 50 Free.

For the DU men on Wednesday, Alec Morris finished sixth in the 1000 Free, Kacper Pelczynski was seventh in the 200 IM, Rodrigo Caceres and Samuel Olson were sixth and seventh in the 50 Free; and the 200 Medley Relay squad of Sean Feher, Pelczynski, Stanislav Kuzmin and Caceres finished third.

Competition continues with prelims starting at 10:30 a.m. EST on Thursday, with finals slated for 6 p.m. 

Fans can watch all the action through a free, live webcast at ncaa.com.

Wednesday's Results