Drury University won its fourth straight NCAA Division II national championship and sixth overall with a steady performance on the final day of the meet at the University of Missouri.

The Panthers got a national title from Mitch Snyder and added four more finishes among the top eight, including a runner-up finish from Alexander Protsenko in the 200-backstroke, then concluded the night with a relay title to finish with a total of 523.5 points.

Snyder won his second straight national title in the 1,650-yard freestyle as he pulled away in the latter stages of the race to win in a time of 15:19.58. Tampa’s Chris O’Linger finished second in 15:25.43. Drury’s 400-yard freestyle relay team of Protsenko, Kyle Kearbey, Yiwen Huang and Tomas Kusvard put the finishing touch on Drury’s title with a national record time of 2:58.84 in its win.

Dan Perdew of UC San Diego, named as the swimmer of the meet, claimed the national title in the 100-yard freestyle as he beat out Ouachita Baptist’s Radu Badalac and Indianapolis’ Alex Arestis in the finals in 44.23. Badalac and Arestis tied for second in 44.47 seconds.

Ouachita Baptist’s Nelson Silva completed an OBU sweep of the titles in the 200-backstroke, as he matched Sarah Watson’s win in the women’s race with one of his own in the men’s race in 1:47.31, edging three competitors that finished within a second of first.

Jakub Jiracek of Seattle, who had been denied twice earlier in the meet of winning a record 11th national title at the Division II level, got that elusive championship in the 200-yard breaststroke as he held off Missouri S&T freshman Zlatan Hamzic by 0.39 seconds to win in 1:58.55.

St. Cloud State’s Nate Jimerson took his second national title of the meet in the diving competition with a score of 546.15 in the three-meter event, besting the defending champion Brandon Birchek of Saint Rose.

Missouri S&T, the host institution for the NCAA Division II Championships, had a strong final day headed by Hamzic’s runner-up effort in the 200-breaststroke to climb to second in the team standings, its highest national finish in school history in any sport.

West Chester took third place, followed by Ouachita Baptist and North Dakota.

–Courtesy Missouri S&T