EVANSVILLE, Ind. — Drury's Alvaro Zornoza captured his first individual national championship in the 200 backstroke, and Gwen Bergum won her second national title in as many days with her victory in the 200 breaststroke at the 2026 NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships Saturday at Deaconess Aquatic Center.

The Drury men earned national runner-up distinction after narrowly missing their 23rd team title, finishing just 13.5 points behind Tampa for the top spot in the team standings following a back-and-forth battle between the two teams Saturday. Drury's 509 points led third-place Colorado Mesa (416) by 93 points and fourth-place GLVC foe Indianapolis (399) by 110.

In the women's competition, Bergum's time of 2:10.78 in the 200 breast eclipsed her previous personal best and followed a sixth-place performance in the same event a year ago. She became the second Panther in as many years to capture both the 100 and 200 breast titles at the NCAA meet, joining Jonette Laegreid who did so last spring. Bergum, who won the title in the 100 breast Friday, is the sixth Panther to win the 200 breast national title.

The Drury women turned in their 31st consecutive top-five finish at the NCAA Division II level, totaling 284 points to place fifth behind West Florida (298.5), Colorado Mesa (328.5), Tampa (424.5) and Nova Southeastern (486, which captured its fourth-straight team national title.

This year's second and fifth-place finishes by each Drury program gives the Panthers 28 trips to the NCAA-II Championships with both teams placing among the top five squads nationally.

Colby Hughes (15:27.49) opened the night with a 14th-place effort for Drury in the men's 1,650 free, with Tampa wiping out Drury's slim lead entering the day behind Jacob Hamlin's second-place performance in the event.

Yuri Cabral (43.25) helped the Panthers stay within striking distance with his seventh-place finish in the 100 free, with Lucas Mineur (43.42) and Marwane Sebbata (43.74) adding 10th and 12th-place performances, respectively.
 
Zornoza (1:41.20) led a contingent of three Panthers placing in the top eight swimmers in the men's 200 back, with defending national champion Ivan Adamchuk (1:42.22) finishing right on his heels in second, and freshman Evaldas Babakinas (1:45.01)  coming in eighth. Zornoza and Adamchuk became the fourth set of Drury teammates to claim back-to-back national titles in the 200 back, with Mikita Tsmyh (2022) and Nathan Bighetti (2021) being the last duo to accomplish the feat.

Those efforts, in addition to a third-place performance by Joao Nogueira (1:53.99) in the men's 200 breast, helped catapult the Panthers back into the lead in the team standings.

However, Tampa would also deliver a strong effort in the 200 breast with the fourth and sixth-place finishers to reclaim the upper hand heading into the final event of the Championships, the 400 free relay.

Trailing in the team standings by just 7.5 points and needing a victory coupled with no better than a third-place finish by Tampa to capture the team national title, the Panthers went down to the wire against the Spartans. But Tampa's relay effort was enough to withstand a stiff challenge by the quartet of Mineur, Matteo Vissotto, Zornoza and Cabral, who turned in a runner-up effort of 2:51.50, trailing the Spartans by just 0.36 of a second.

That margin was enough to give Tampa a 13.5 edge in the final standings and its second national title. The Panthers captured their fourth national runner-up finish in the last five years and their 28th top-three finish at the Division II level.

Ashlyn Moore (50.57) and Belen Morales (50.63) were the Panthers' top finishers in the women's 100 free, placing 14th and 15th, respectively.   

Additionally, the DU women's 400 free relay squad of Morales, Nikol Maniko, Juliana Harden and Moore locked up the Panthers' place in the team standings with their fourth-place finish in 3:20.44.

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