It's a Houston Ho-down Between Wayne State and Drury

On Day Three storylines are beginning to emerge.  On the women's side, Drury has begun to shake loose of the field, 417 points, as they won the 100 back, 200 fly and the 800 free relay.  Wayne State holds down second with 343 and UC San Diego follows with 318.  Truman is next with 249.5 and Ouachita and West Chester are battling for 5th and 6th with team totals of 179 and 169.

The men’s meet is really interesting.  Drury has lost two relays to disqualifications and Wayne State has been swimming great each day.  After day three Wayne State leads 404.5 to 368.  Tomorrow should be real interesting, Wayne State coach, Sean Peters, sitting in a different position going into the last day said, “Tomorrow will be fun.  We are going to have to go to battle and have a great morning.”  While Drury coach Brian Reynolds said, "We are within striking distance, but we are going to have to get in the big finals for a shot."

Missouri S&T and Limestone have locked horns in a battle for third with 216 and 206.5 respectfully.  The top ten round out like this: Ouachita, 197; UC San Diego, 182.5; Tampa, 174; Grand Valley, 171; Wingate, 166; and West Chester, 130.

500 Free: Ashley St. Andrew of Wayne State replayed her 1000 free from Wednesday night.  She was in the race from start to finish, gradually pulling away from the field going 4:51.44.  Paulina Alexander of Incarnate Word earned her third silver medal to go along with her 1000 free and 400 IM in a time of 4:53.12.  Tampa’s 200 free champ Jesse Bardin wrapped up third place with a great finish going 4:54.30.  Wayne State’s Catherine Leix finished in 4th with a time of 4:55.48.  The rest of Wayne State’s distance lane scored four more swimmers in the consolation finals finishing 9th, 11th, 12th and 14th earning them a total of 58 points in the 500 free.

100 Backstroke: Jing Hua of Drury took the lead on the start and never let go.  Jing was out in 26.05 and won in meet record time going 53.88.  Teammate Janelle Slattery finished in second at 54.87 and West Chester sprinter Jackie Borkowski showed some finishing speed to get her hand on the wall for third  in 55.61.

100 Breaststroke: Keeping things close the top three finishers were separated by .08.  Courtney Roberts had a solid lead at the 50 and survived the rush home from UC San Diego’s Kendall Bohm and Denise Simens of Clarion as they finished 1-2-3 going 1:03.05, 1:03.10 and 1:03.13.

200 Butterfly: Yuan Qing Li won the 200 fly in meet record time going 1:59.69 just ahead of her morning swim but it was a painful finish.  Yuan took it out in 56.13 but the last 50 of 32.68 had Tanya Sylvester of Truman State realing in the big fish to finish with a 30.72 last 50 and end up in 2:00.72 as she also avoided the pianos that everyone else carried home on the last 50.  Wayne State  junior Elaina Hogle took third in a time of 2:01.67.  Drury heads into diving with a 62 point lead over Wayne State.

800 Free Relay:  Well tonight’s final was fun to watch, but if you wanted to see the champion you had to go to prelims.  Drury, who’s entry time was not in the top 8 swam in prelims and won the event in record time going 7;21.89.  UC San Diego swam 4 solid legs and took home the silver in a time of 7:23.54.  Truman’s Kate Aherne anchored the Truman relay that was in 6th when she hit the water, splitting 1:48.43 and finished them 2nd in the heat and third overall going 7:26.18.

500 Free: This was a great race.  Only 1.3 seconds separated the top five finishers throughout the race.  Tampa’s Chris O’Linger led at the 200 at 1:43.9.  Costa, Wayne State and Incarnate Word’s Yatsko were even at the 400, 3:30.7, but Alex Yatsko pulled away on next 50 and held off the rest of thefield as they all surged home together.  Yatsko went 4:22.82, Costa was next in 4:23.12, followed by Drury teammates Mitch Snyder, 4:23.26 and Kyrillo Fesenko, 4:23.69.  Tampa’s O’Linger finished up the fabulous five in 4:24.15.

100 Back:  Ouachita Baptist’s sprinter Radu Badalac showed his speed by taking his race out in 22.9 a full .6 ahead of the nearest competitor.  His walls and speed held up and Radu won convincingly in 48.08.  Minnesota State-Mankato’s Ben Dowswell carried the second place from start to finish, but Wayne State senior Sean Smith swam a great back half to tie with Ben for second.  Their time was 48.72.  OBU’s Nelson Silva managed a strong race for fourth in 48.75.

100 Breaststroke: Former NCAA Division I finalist Aleksander Hetland of Tampa destroyed the meet record and the field in 52.43.  His nearest competitor, Manuel Stiem of Indianapolis in any other year had what anyone would consider an awesome swim going 54.45.  He out touched Hal Eubanks of Ouachita at 54.52 and Zlatan Hamzic of Missouri S&T who came up a half stroke short in 54.76.

200 Butterfly: Wayne State racked up the points in the fly with 4 finalists.  There 1-4-5-7 finish was a powerful message that they are in the meet.  Duarte Mourao led from start to finish and looked like he could keep going when he touched the wall in 1:44.54.  Drury’s Yiwen Huang charged away from the rest of thefield and came in second going 1:47.14.  Missouri S&T’s Andrew Schrank cleared the rest of the field  with a strong finish to gain third going 1:48.40.  Wayne State went back on top after racking up over 60 points in this event.

1 Meter Diving: Defending 1 meter champion Nathan Jimerson of St. Cloud State piked and twisted his way to another gold ratcheting up a score of 522.95.  This year’s 3 meter champion from Clarion, Logan Pearsall took second scoring 492.75 and Wayne State’s Cayce Bolt took third with 469.95.

800 Free Relay: This was a great race to watch.  Drury won in a new meet record going 6:30.77, but they should thank Wingate for giving them a big push.  Wingate swam very disciplined legs always strong on the back half.  The last 50 got real interesting when Wingate’s anchor, Gus Chagas pulled with .5 seconds, he split 1:35.45, of Drury’s Mike Winiewicz, but Winiwicz found another gear and pulled away on the last 50 going 1:36.81 and winning gold.  Wayne State took third swimming a strong time of 6:34.99.