Truman State and Drury entered the last day of the NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships tied for the team lead – and thanks to getting the lead early in the night, Truman State went on to reclaim its spot atop the nation.

The Bulldogs, who saw their string of six straight national titles get halted by Drury last season, got a second place finish from Molly Polette in the 1,650-yard freestyle to start the night and ended it with a strong second place finish behind Nebraska-Omaha in the final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay, to wrap up its seventh national championship in the last eight years.

Kristen Frost of Southern Connecticut State, who beat Polette in the 1,650, completed a dominating individual performance at this year’s national meet by breaking her third meet record in the event by posting a time of 16:17.66 to break a 21-year-old meet record.

The win was Frost’s fourth in as many events, as she had recorded victories in the 200-, 500- and 1,000-yard freestyle events during the week. She broke national records in three of her victories and was named as the swimmer of the meet.

The University of North Dakota, competing in its last NCAA Division II meet before reclassifying next season, picked up a national championship on the final night as Carissa Gormall edged Indianapolis’ Isabela Tafur to win the 100-yard freestyle in 50.01 seconds, 0.29 ahead of Tafur. The win by Gormall helped lead UND to a third place effort in the team standings.

Sarah Watson of Ouachita Baptist won the title in the 200-yard backstroke with the only sub-two minute time in the finals, finishing in 1:59.39. UC San Diego’s Kendall Bohn won the final individual event of the night for the women by beating Brooke Heath in a close race in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:17.71.

UC San Diego finished fourth as a team and Nebraska-Omaha, the fifth place team, closed the meet with the relay victory as the team of Jessica Hessel, Kristy Gmeiner, Megan Guthmiller and Cait Hopkins posted a winning time of 3:25.52.

–Courtesy Missouri S&T