INDIANAPOLIS - Drury's defending national champion men's and women's swimming and diving squads find themselves in unfamiliar terrority of late as they head into Saturday's final day of the NCAA-II Championships - scrambling to make up ground.

The 10-time defending men's champion Panthers, and a DU women's squad that's won five of the last six NCAA-II titles, both trail Queens (N.C.) as the competition enters the final sequence of events Saturday night at the IU Natatorium.

The DU men trail Queens 316.5 to 302.5, with Lindenwood third at 270. Grand Valley State is fourth with 230 points.

Meanwhile, the DU women face a bigger deficit, with Queens having amassed 422.5 points to second-place Drury's 356.5. Wingate is well back in third at 248.0.

"No question, we've got our work cut out for us," Drury coach Brian Reynolds said. 

Drury's brightest moment on Friday came with sophomore Katya Rudenko's championship in the 100 Back (52.75).

Outside of that, there were several races where the Panthers had solid efforts ... but were always a place or two behind Queens, the Charlotte, N.C., school that has burst onto the swimming scene only in the last couple of years with the recruitment of stars like sophomores Matthew Josa and sophomore Patricia Castro Ortega, who seem to be breaking national records every time they hit the water.

The Panthers closed the evening with strong efforts in the 800 Free Relay, but their second-place finishes for both the men and women came to Queens in the event. And so it went.

Drury got a 3-4-7 finish from Allie Reynolds, Sarah Pullen and Megan Ouhl in the 500 Free, but Queens went 1-2 with Ortega and Lillian Gordy. That seemed to be the pattern for the night, as the DU women lost major ground, while the men lost considerably less.

The second place effort for the DU women in the 800 Free Relay came with Leah Reed, Janet Yu, Kay Gieseke and Pullen.

The DU men got a fourth and an eighth from Sean Feher and Jordi Montseny in the 100 Back, a fifth from Kacper Pelczynski in the 100 Breast, a sixth from Stanislav Kuzmin in the 200 Fly (won by Josa in a national-record 1:42.96) and a second (to Queens) in the 800 Free Relay with Samuel Olson, Luka Matacin, Montseny and Feher.

Fans can watch Saturday's finish in a free, live webcast at www.ncaa.com/live.

Friday's Results