Swimcloud

Drury Uses Depth to Capture 16th and 17th Titles

Drury University captured its ninth men’s and eighth women’s NCAA Division II Swimming & Diving Championships on Saturday night.  They did so in a way that would silence anyone who says they did it with a preponderance of international imports.  This year’s Panthers didn’t rely on star-power.  In fact, last year’s men’s supehero, Jun Han Kim looked downright human in finishing fourth in the men’s 100 breaststroke.  It didn’t matter, however as the Panther women accumulated 483.5 points to best second-place Wayne State by 388.  UC-San Diego finished third with 338 points, and Clarion claimed the final trophy with 272 points.   On the men’s side, Drury posted 600.5 points to UC-San Diego’s 345.  Wayne State with 295 points and Grand Canyon with 292.5 points finished out the trophy positions.

San Diego enjoyed a banner night, courtesy the State of California’s budget woes.  Matt Herman didn’t even know if he was going to swim again after UC-Davis eliminated its men’s program last spring, but he found a home and a, “coaching staff who cared about me just as much” in Scott McGighon and company.  In the 1650 Free Herman jumped out to a 0.11 second lead in the first fifty and that would be as close as the field would get.  His 15:12.78 was over half a length ahead of Drury’s Ryan Arabejo and good for his second title of the weekend.  Arabejo held off the hard-charging 500 Free champion Iaroslav Denysenko.  Denysenko had the fastest final 500 of the field which moved him past Lewis’ Kevin Coates for third.

UC-San Diego also got a win from Nick Korth.  Whereas Herman had put together two solid seasons at Davis, Korth had his team – UC-Irvine – pulled out from underneath him before his freshman year.  Sitting out a year, he too found a home with the Tritons, and the move resulted in his first NCAA title and record in the 200 breaststroke.  Korth set the early pace with Florida Southern’s Miguel Ferreira and Kim, but separated himself from the pack at the 150 mark.  At precisely the same moment, Ashland’s Cheyne Fisher made his move.  Herman’s stroke started to shorten up, but he had enough to hold off the Ashland sophomore.

The night began with Cassie Hurrell-Zitelman doing what she had done all weekend – win.  The Incarnate Word senior won her fourth event of the weekend when she captured the 1650 Freestyle in 16:37.29.  She was well off the record, but she was nearly as close to Kristin Frost’s 16:17 as she was to Grand Canyon’s Inha Kotsur who finished third.   Erin Dolan finished second, one place up from her finish in the 1000 on Wednesday night.  

There’s a new Russian Rocket and his name is Andrey Seryy.  The Wayne State senior established himself as Division II’s greatest sprinter when he decimated the field and record in the 100 freestyle.  Two nights after he broke Ben Michaelson’s 50 freestyle record by 0.01, he dropped nearly four-tenth’s off Michaelson’s 100 record.  He was nearly a second ahead of second-place Vladimir Sidorkin.  The Estonian Olympian turned heads all weekend long with his hairstyle and flair for racing sans goggles and cap.  Grand Canyon’s Artem Tretiakov and Kyle Shores finished third and fouth respectively.

Lest anyone think Incarnate Word was a one-woman show, Tamiris Nascimento rocketed from her fourth seed to the championship in the 100 Free.  The event was stacked with four finalists from last year making the big heat.  In prelims four swimmers swam between 50.14 and 50.18, and at night three of them were sub-50.  At the first wall, Nascimento, Clarion’s Kaitlyn Johnson and California’s Melissa Gates were within 0.02 of one another and fifty yards later it was just Nascimento and Johnson.  The Cardinal pulled away as she left the final wall to finish in 49.37, ahead of Johnson (49.95) and Gates (49.97).

The 200 backstroke had the makings of the evening’s most exciting race.  It showcased three of the top six finishes from last year and four national champions.  Moreover, on the night being celebrated as St. Patrick’s Day, it featured a pair of O-apostrophe swimmers.  The night before, UCSD’s Alex Henley captured the 200 fly by going out fast and holding on.  The night before, Florida Southern’s Mary O’Sullivan did the same in the 200 freestyle.  Tonight, it was all O’Sullivan.  Nobody could contain her as she jumped out to a 56.04, well ahead of eventual fifth-place finisher Katherine O’Donnell of LeMoyne.   Her time of 1:56.90 bested the previous record and was enough to hold off Henley who finished second for the second-straight year.  Jackie Hynson finished third with SCSU’s Amanda Thomas finishing fourth.  Last night’s 100 backstroke champion, Sara Franklin finished a distance sixth.

The men’s 200 backstroke was one of five events with eight different teams represented.  Even more unique, Drury was not represented in that top heat.  The defending champion, Jeff Halfacre was however, and the Florida Southern Sophomore erased last night’s disappointing second-place finish in the 100 backstroke with his second win in the 200 edition.  Colorado School of Mines’ Andrew Zerwick gave the Miners a thrill when he found himself leading at the mid-way mark.  It appeared that Zerwick would fade much as he did in the morning, but it wasn’t to be.  He successfully held off Jordan Schrotenboer (GVSU) for second.  Last year’s third-place finisher Nikita Belousov finished fifth behind Ashland’s Pablo Mauricio Uranga.

Ana Gonzales Pena successfully defended her title in the 200 breaststroke and erased Rosanna Delurgio’s name from the record-book.  Pena, who set the 100 breaststroke record the night before, was matched stroke-for-stroke by Drury’s Ekaterina Alyabyeva through the first 100 yards, but Alyabyeva was unable to hold onto the pace.  Emily Adamczyk moved past the Panther in the third fifty, but Alyabyeva regained her bearings to come home in second.  

The last event for women saw the Drury women establishing a new record in the 400 Freestyle Relay.  Li Tao, Ekaterina Alyabyeva, Tiffany Van Dongen, and Kelsey Ward destroyed their previous mark of 3:22.28.  Anchored by Azambuja’s 49.94, Drury became the first women’s Division II team to go under 3:21 and 3:20 with their 3:19.74.

The final event of the 2011 championships proved to be as exciting as any of the meet.  With two finalists under 45.0 seconds in the 100 freestyle, newly-established Grand Canyon University looked to capture its first-ever NCAA title.   Also at state was a chance to finish third overall.  Through the first 300 yards it looked like that was about to happen.  That was until Drury's mulleted hero left the blocks.  Vladimir Sidorkin exploded off the blocks to chase down Grand Canyon's Michael Branning. Sidorkin ate up 6/10 of Canyon's lead in the first fifty and came led both teams under the Panthers' previous mark.  Wayne State held off Bridgeport for fourth and in doing so secured third-place overall in the team standings.

Comments