The Drury women rallied with a victory in the 200 Freestyle Relay to topple Missouri State 117-114, while the DU men - well after the meet had finished - were determined the winner as well in a one-point reversal (112-111) on a thrilling night in what became a Drury sweep of the "Duel In The Pool"  between the Panthers and Bears Thursday night at the Breech Pool.

Some two hours after the meet, MSU coach Dave Collins - in a noble gesture of sportsmanship - notified DU coach Brian Reynolds after Collins discovered a scoring error that mistakenly had awarded his Bears points for four finishers (second through fifth place) in the 200 Free.

By rule, dual meet scoring only allows for a maximum of three swimmers eligible to receive points per team, though the automated scoring software erroneously was not set up pre-meet to designate it as such.

With sixth-place finisher David Wong being bumped to fifth and a point extracted for the fifth-place finish by the Bears' Kevin Douglas, that gave the Panthers the 112-111 victory over their NCAA Division I rivals.

It was a vast turnaround for Reynolds' Panthers, whose women lost by 63 (150-87) and men fell by 48 (135-87) when they met the Bears in mid-October at the Hammons Student Center Pool. Drury, after the scoring reversal, pulled even with the Bears at 16-16 on the men's side in the all-time series, while the DU women pushed their series lead to 15-5.

"I think it just shows how far we've come since the fall, that dramatic improvement by a lot of kids ... especially the freshman class," Reynolds said. "I'm extremely proud of how hard they've worked to put themselves into a position to make the meet as close as it was.

"And I think it just shows the professionalism and the sportsmanship of the coaching staff at Missouri State. I think we might have been able to spot (the error) eventually after a review of the results, but it's just very sportsmanslike for Dave to have made the discovery and the call tonight."

But this time, it came down to the wire, as the women, keyed by a huge final kick from senior Gretchen Stein, captured the 200 Free Relay to close the night and rally past the Bears. The DU men finished 1-2 in the final relay, which in the end, wound up meaning the meet victory for the Panthers.

Janice Poon, Madeline Nelson and Vera Johansson swam the first three legs for Drury, while the DU men's winning effort of 1:20.27 consisted of Daniel Rzadkowski, Aaron Buckingham, Walter Ross and Rodrigo Caceres.

 

Stein also set a new Breech Pool record with her 2:04.01 to win the 200 Individual Medley, while Rzadkowski did the same with his 44.42 in a victorious 100 Free. Rzadkowski also won the 200 Free.

Wen Xu also swept the 50 and 100 Free - setting a pool record in the latter - for the second straight meet against the Bears to help the DU women to the victory, while Rebekah Laupp captured both the 1-meter and 3-meter diving boards to aid the Panthers' cause. 

Other winners for the Panthers included Megan Oohl in the 1000 Free, Zuza Chwadeczko in the 100 Breast for the women, and Aidan Glynn in the 100 Back, Caceres in the 50 Free and Ethan Okazaki in both diving boards for the DU men.

Drury is back in action on Friday for Senior Night ceremonies, taking on national Division I power Mizzou in a 5 p.m. start at Breech. Senior festivities will begin at approximately 4:45 p.m.

Mediacom Connections 22 replays of the "Duel In The Pool" with MSU will run at 7 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday and at 1 p.m. on Sunday on all MC22 cable outlets.

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