(Courtesy Drury Athletics)

SAN ANTONIO - Mission accomplished. The “three-sweep” is complete.

A year ago in Canton, Ohio, Drury became the first school in NCAA-II history to sweep the men’s and women’s national championships in swimming and diving in consecutive years.

Now, after yet another dominating performance by the DU men and a solid four days of work by the DU women, make that three years in a row.

The Drury men captured their seventh consecutive national D-II title and the DU women their third straight and fourth in the past five years on Saturday night at the Palo Alto Natatorium.

For the men, it was virtually no contest after the first couple of days of the four-day competition, as they took a 205-point lead into Saturday’s final night and coasted, finishing with a total of 600 points to easily out-distance runner-up UC-San Diego (345). Wayne State was third with 295, followed by Grand Canyon (292.5) and Wingate (252) to round out the top five.

The Drury women, however, had some work done on Saturday. Wayne State gained major ground with its showing in diving – which the Panthers had no competitors – and made a race of it, before DU pulled away behind some solid showings all night and a victory in the meet-closing 400 Free Relay – in national record time – to seal the deal.

Drury finished with 483.5 points to outdistance runner-up Wayne State (388). UC-San Diego finished third with 338, followed by Clarion (272) and Ashland (240) to round out the women’s top five.

Read More: DruryPanthers.com

The Drury men finished with 538 points for a 135-point victory, beating runner-up Incarnate Word (403). Wayne State was third with 343 points, while Grand Valley State (314) finished fourth and Ouachita Baptist (300) was fifth.

The DU women won their meet by 126 points, finishing with 657 points to runner-up Wayne State’s 531. UC-San Diego was third at 318, followed by West Chester (313.5) and Truman State (251) to complete the top five.

Drury picked up its eighth men’s title and seventh women’s championship since the programs moved to the NCAA-II level in 1994-95. The Panthers now have swept both titles in 1999, 2007, 2009 and 2010.

The sixth consecutive national championship for the Drury men ranks second all-time among NCAA-II programs, trailing only the eight straight won by Cal-State Bakersfield from 1986-93. The DU women won for the second straight year and third time in the last four years.

And yet again, Drury – which also got a boost when sophomore Jun Han Kim was named National Men’s Swimmer of the Year – used a strong final day to leave no doubt as to who ruled the pool in the four days of competition.

“It was just a tremendous effort by both squads all week,” Drury coach Brian Reynolds said. “Our veterans showed our young kids who were here for the first time the determination and extra effort it took to get it done for four days, and I’m extremely proud of both groups. We had so many swimmers step up with amazing efforts to make sure we got the job done.”

It started Saturday night for the women with a second and a fourth in the 1650 Freestyle from sophomore Erin Dolan and freshman Deanna Sorenson, and a 12th from sophomore Hannah McFall, respectively, for a quick 37 points. Then came a 4-7-8 finish from freshman Tiffany Van Dongen, senior Jing Hua and junior Li Tao in the 100 Free for another 38 points.

And the DU women poured it on from there, including another national title in the 200 Back from junior Juan Qing “Apple” Li and a fourth from senior Abbey Musch in the 200 Breast.

The DU men, meanwhile, opened Saturday’s session with a second national championship of the week for freshman Chris Jacobsen, this time in the 1650 Free. Michael Winiewicz followed with a seventh and Carlos Viveros a ninth in the 100 Free, Alexander Protsenko added a second place in the 200 Back and Jun Han Kim finished third in the 200 Breast.

By the time the evening was headed to the final two events – men’s 3-meter diving and the 400 Freestyle relay for both – the DU women had a 116-point lead, the DU men were up by 107 and all that was left for both was deciding how they were going handle their latest celebratory dive as a team into the pool after the awards ceremony.

For good measure, the Panthers picked up a victory in the women’s 400 Free Relay by Kelsey Ward, Li Tao, Van Dongen and Li, while the men closed out the meet with a third-place finish from Chris Kohler, Sergei Bilov, Viveros and Winiewicz in the same event, touching off the traditional post-meet celebration for the DU squads.

“We came into this season with a lot of questions, particularly on the men’s squad with all the quality swimmers we graduated last year,” Reynolds said. “Our women really had strong leadership from a great senior group to show the younger swimmers how it’s done, and our young guys really found a way to rise to the occasion here this week.”

– Courtesy Drury Athletics

The Drury squads pulled the men’s-women’s double championships for a third time at the NCAA-II level, previously accomplishing the feat in 1999 and 2007. The only other schools to do so in the same season are Cal State-Northridge in 1982 and Oakland in 1994.

The DU men finished with 543 points to Wayne State‘s 504.5. Missouri Science and Technology finished a distant third at 320.5, followed by Limestone (279.5) and Ouachita Baptist (259.0) to complete the top five.

On the women’s side, it was a Drury runaway – the Panthers finished with 618.5 points, well ahead of runner-up Wayne State‘s 453.5. UC-San Diego was third with 425, followed by defending champion Truman State at 333.

The Drury teams won 18 of the 42 events held this week and set new NCAA marks in 15 events. Drury has now won seven men’s championships and six women’s titles since making the move to NCAA-II.

FULL STORY

–Courtesy Drury Athletics