The NCAA News - News and Features

March 9, 1998

Division II Women's Swimming and Diving

Drury returns 10 to try for repeat

Event: 1998 Division II Women's Swimming and Diving Championships

Overview: Drury returns 10 all-Americans from last year's team and looks to repeat as champion. Powerhouses Air Force and Oakland have left the Division II ranks for Division I, so challenges to Drury will come from Cal State Bakersfield, Truman State, Indiana (Pennsylvania) and Northern Michigan .... Drury's Viktoria Gadd, defending champion in the 100-, 200- and 500-yard freestyle events, looks to anchor this year's Panther team. Other key Panther swimmers are Cortney Martellucci in the 100- and 200-yard breaststrokes and the 200-yard individual medley, senior Gloria Ramos in the 100- and 200-yard butterfly events and distance swimmer Christina Tompkins .... Cal State Bakersfield hopes to improve on its best-ever sixth-place finish last year with the help of Karlyn Pepes-Neilsen (backstroke and individual medley) and Charli Shearard (butterfly and backstroke) .... Rachel Slade hopes to anchor Indiana to the title. Slade is ranked No. 1 individually in both the 100 and 200 butterflys .... Northern Michigan returns eight all-Americans, including sophomore standout Erin Vostad. She will compete in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle events and 200 and 400 medley relays. The Wildcats enter the championships after winning the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship.

Field: The meet is open to all qualifiers who have met the NCAA's established minimum standard in an event. Entries are unlimited in number; however, no team is allowed more than 19 competitors.

Dates and site: The championships will be hosted by Ashland March 11-14 at the C. T. Branin Natatorium in Canton, Ohio.

Information/results: The fax-on-demand telephone number is 770/399-3060 (passcode 1915); request numbers are 5203 for the first day's results, 5204 for the second day's results, 5205 for the third day's results and 5206 for the final day's results. Individual and team results also will be available on the World Wide Web at www.ncaa.org. Championships results will be published in the March 23 issue of The NCAA News.