Feb. 18, 2001

Truman Women Swimmers Win Central States Championships; Men Third

The Truman women's swimming team beat defending champion Drury University at the Central States Championships which began Wednesday evening and ran through Saturday. The Bulldogs were ahead by just 14 points after Friday evening, but pulled away on the final day to win by 51 points. Lewis University finished third, 584.5 points behind Drury.

The Truman men repeated their third-place finish at the Central States meet, the last big outing before the NCAA Division II national championships March. 14-17. Missouri-Rolla won for the men with the Drury men also coming in second.

Thirteen Truman women and two men are now qualified for the national meet. Last year, the women placed second in the nation to Drury, and this year will be looking to become Truman's first national championship team.

The Bulldog women complete the regular season with a 6-2 dual record and four first-place finishes, while the men posted a dual record of 2-6 with two first-place finishes.

On Friday, the 200-yard medley relay team of sophomore Kelli Dudley (Topeka, Kan./West), sophomore Meghan Osborn (Tipton, Iowa), freshman Katie May (Westmont, Ill./Hinsdale Central) and sophomore Sara Hatcher (Kingdom City, Mo./North Callaway) finished second (1:49.21) making a new A cut. It was Osborn's first qualifying time of the year.

Dudley also won the 400-yard individual medley (4:26.78), improving on her A cut and own school record time. Freshman Alison Blyth (Clive, Iowa/Dowling) also posted her career best in the event and made the B cut with a first-place (4:44.91) finish in the consolation heat.

Senior Jess Martin (Buckingham, Iowa/Cedar Falls) was the winner of the 200-yard freestyle (1:53.59), improving her A cut for the season, while junior Bridget Riley (Overland Park, Kan./Olathe South) posted a new B cut for the event with a first-place finish in the consolation swim (1:57.49).

May was the champion in the 100-yard backstroke (58.59), also dropping her season-best A cut.

Truman automatically qualified its first 800-yard freestyle relay team when Liz Hug (Maryville, Ill./Collinsville), Martin, May and Bryna Busch (Kansas City, Mo./Shawnee Mission East) won the event (7:36.85).

Sophomore Matt Pray (Naperville, Ill./North) improved his A cut and broke his own school record with a first-place finish in the 100-yard butterfly (49.80).

Junior Kyle Sterup (Fremont, Neb.) took the school record away from teammate Eric McCullough (Lenexa, Kan./S.M. East), finishing third in the the 200-yard freestyle (1:42.47) and charting a new B cut for himself in the process. Freshman Robby Cooper (Holden, Mo.) also swam the B cut in the 200 free after placing fifth (1:44.81), while McCullough was second (1:44.75) in the consolation heat and posted his first national cut of the year, meeting the B standard.

On Saturday, Martin won the first event, setting a pool and Truman record in the 1,650-yard freestyle (17:13.01). She improved her season best time which automatically qualifies for nationals while robbing teammate Bridget Riley of the Bulldog record she set last March at 17:21.00. Riley placed third with a new automatic qualifying time of 17:39.38 in the 1,650, while freshman Ellen Frick (Manhattan, Kan.) improved her B cut time to 17:57.47.

In the women's 200-yard backstroke, Dudley was the winner (2:05.75) but did not improve on the season, while Andrea Newton (Clive, Iowa/Homeschooled) was second (2:07.16) and improved on her previous A cut. Jen Vogt (Dubuque, Iowa/Walhert) finished seventh (2:12.04), qualifying for her third event at the national meet.

In the 100-yard freestyle, Busch was the top finisher for Truman, coming in third (52.86) with another automatic cut, and Hatcher dropped her time in the event (53.10) with another B cut.

May qualified for her 10th event at the national meet after swimming a new B cut in the 200-yard butterfly (2:14.60).

The 400-yard freestyle relay team of Hatcher, Hug, Martin and Busch finished second with their best time of the season in event (3:29.74).

Cooper solidified his trip to nationals by breaking a 16-year-old Bulldog record with a first-place finish in the 1,650-yard freestyle (16:09.49), his first A cut of the year. The record had stood since Mark Holman set it at 16:21.79 in March of 1985 for Truman. Sterup came in fifth (16:18.50), improving on his season-best time in the 1,650, and Ryan Jacobi (Florissant, Mo./DeSmet) posted a new B cut (16:38.83) in the event with a seventh-place finish.

Other Bulldog records broken during the meet: Martin also set a new school standard in the 500-yard freestyle on Thursday with her first-place finish (4:55.32). Riley had set the mark at 4:59.57 last year. Martin also bettered her own school record by about 15 seconds in the 1,000-yard freestyle with a first-place finish (10:15.31) on Wednesday evening in the first event of the meet.

With his second-place finish (4:38.10), Cooper took the school mark in the 500 free from Mike Hoskovec who set it at 4:40.92 last season.

The Bulldogs will spend the next three weeks training for the national meet hosted by Ashland University in Canton, Ohio. Head coach Seth Huston may look to qualify more individuals between now and then at some last chance meets.

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