Mar. 15, 2003

Several Bulldogs Teams Compete at NCAA Championships Highlighted By Women's Swimming Winning Its Third Straight NCAA Title

It was NCAA Championship weekend for five Truman winter sports teams. The school received several strong performances including the women's swimming team winning its third straight NCAA Championship and wrestler Merrick Meyer finishing as the NCAA runnerup at 141 pounds.

At the NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships, the Bulldogs women's swim team put one the most dominating performances in NCAA Division II history, scoring 682 points and finishing 272 points ahead of second-place Drury. The 272 point margin of victory was the largest in NCAA Division II history.

The Bulldogs won four relay events and five individual championships. The 200-yard medley and 400-yard medley relay teams set NCAA Division II records and the 800-yard and 400-yard freestyle relays also brought home first-place. Individually, Liz Hug won the 100-yard freestyle and 200-yard IM events, Kelli Dudley was NCAA champion in the 400-yard IM and 200-yard backstroke and Diana Betsworth was champion in the 500-yard freestyle.

The Truman men's team finished 10th at the event led by senior Matt Pray. Pray set school records in the 200-yard butterfly and 400-yard butterfly and was a member of the 400-yard medley relay team that also set a new school standard. He finished third in the 200 butterfly and fourth in the other two events.

At the NCAA Wrestling Championships, regional champions Merrick Meyer (141 pounds) and Corey Crandall (157 pounds) represented Truman. The Bulldogs finished 21st overall after recording 20 points at the competition.

Meyer earned all-America honors and was the NCAA runnerup after winning his first three matches before falling to the top-ranked wrestler in the country in the finals. He was dominate in the first three matches with pins in the first round and semifinals and a 6-1 decision in the quarterfinals. Meyer, however, could not overcome Shane Barnes of Adams State as he lost a 15-3 decision in the championship match. He is just the second Bulldog to advance to an NCAA final and the first since Curd Alexander won the 115-pound championship back in 1968.

Crandall won his first match by a 7-5 decision and took his quarterfinal opponent into a tiebreaking before losing by a pin. In the consolation bracket, he lost an 11-3 decision in his first wrestleback match.

At the NCAA Indoor Track Championships, both men's and women's squads were represented by one athlete. On the men's side, Matt Helbig advanced to the finals on Saturday in the mile run after a ninth-place preliminary finish. In the finals, he ran a 4:21.04 and finished tenth in the event. For the Truman women, which won the MIAA Indoor Championship two weeks ago, Sara Jessen competed in the 60-meter hurdle prelims and finished 11th with a time of 9.07, missing out on the finals by two spots and 0.10 seconds.