GREENSBORO, N.C.– Drury University swimmers won four events and Marshfield native Bailee Nunn won her third national title on the third day of the NCAA-II national swimming & diving championships at the Greensboro Aquatic Center in Greensboro, North Carolina on Friday.
The Drury women’s team ended the day in second place in the national standings behind defending champion Queens (NC). The Royals finished Friday’s session with 428.5 points while the Panthers trail with 300. Nova Southeastern is in third with 224 points.
Drury’s men’s team is in fifth place with 201 points. Queens (NC) has a healthy lead with 414 points, and after that, the next four positions are separated by just 21 points. Indianapolis is in second (222), then California Baptist is third (215), and Florida Southern sits in fourth (213).
Nunn, the sophomore from Marshfield, won her third event of the national championship meet as she came in first in the 100-yard breaststroke. Nunn completed the event in 59.89, and, for the third time in this year’s national competition, Drury finished 1-2 in a women’s event. Zuza Chwadeczko (fah-DETCH-coe) finished second with a time of 1:00.58. Nunn had already won national titles this week in the 200 individual medley, and the 100 butterfly and each time, Chwadeczko has finished second.
Katya Rudenko took first place in the 100 backstroke. The senior from Kazakhstan completed in the event in 53.34 edging Celina Marquez of Oklahoma Baptist by 0.03 seconds.
Men’s swimmer Joan Casanovas captured a national championship in the 500 freestyle. The sophomore from Sabadell, Spain had a winning time of 4:20.08 and won by 1.51 seconds. Alex Reinbrecht took fifth place (4:25.67).
Andrea Bazzoli also won a national title in the 100 breaststroke. The junior from Peschiera Del Garda, Italy won with a time of 52.71 and finished 0.22 ahead of second place Henrik Dahrendorff of Saint Leo.
Erica Dahlgren gave the Drury women’s team a third place finish in the 500 freestyle posting a time of 4:49.82.
The Drury women’s 800 freestyle relay came in 10th place. Caytee Wright, Dahlgren, Chwadeczko and Madeline Nelson finished in 7:27.52.
Drury’s men’s squad also picked up points from Pavel Semochkin’s 16th place finish in the 100 backstroke (49.50) and Young Tae Seo’s (tay, say-oh) 13th place finish in the 200 butterfly (1:48.47).
The Drury men’s team added a 12th place finish in the 800 freestyle relay as Reinbrecht, Reed McKinney, Casanovas, and Bazzoli combined for a time of 6:37.04.
The 2018 NCAA-II men’s and women’s swimming & diving national championship concludes on Saturday with time trials at 9 a.m. (Central) and finals at 5 p.m. at the Greensboro Aquatic Center.
