Wayne State walked away with the team lead at the halfway point of the Division II Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships Thursday night, finishing with a statement by setting a meet record in the 400-yard medley relay.

Sean Smith, Jesper Akesson, Duarte Mourao and Sebastian Rzepa combined for a 3:14.15 finish, better than the 3:16.23 that second-place Ouachita Baptist swam in the preliminaries.

The 40 points from the relay victory vaulted the Warriors to a 232.5-218 edge over Drury, which started the day facing adversity after having its 200-yard freestyle relay team disqualified in the preliminaries. Wayne State made up valuable ground by placing fourth in that event while the Panthers sat idly by.

But Drury scored big in the 400-yard individual medley, led by senior Kyrillo Fesenko, who successfully defended his 2008 championship in the event.

Fesenko, who also placed third in Wednesday’s 1,000-yard freestyle, took the lead over Wayne State’s Mourao in the backstroke portion (second leg) of the race and cruised to a meet-record 3:49.17, a little more than a second under the previous best from Drury alum Jakub Jiracek in 2006.

In addition to Fesenko’s 20 points in the IM, the Panthers got a second place from Jun Han Kim and a fifth from Tomas Kuzvard to keep Wayne State in their sights.

“It’s really been a roller coaster for us,” said Drury coach Brian Reynolds. “We gave up 40 points in one relay.”

Besides Fesenko’s mark in the 400 IM, two other meet records were set in the relays. Limestone led off the night with a speedy 1:19.25 in the 200-yard freestyle relay, which topped the mark the Saints had set in the preliminaries. The foursome included 50-free winner Goran Majlat, who swam the anchor leg. He had help from Craig Jordens, Matt Parsonage and Anders Melin.

Wayne State set the other mark in the session’s finale.

While the meet has been as fast as predicted, two records survived on Thursday night. While Wayne State’s Mourao won the 100-yard butterfly by three one-hundredths of a second over Manuel Stiem of Indianapolis with a time of 47.25, he couldn’t touch the 45.60 that Southern Connecticut State’s Ben Michaelson swam in 2003.

UC Davis’ John Keppeler’s 1993 mark of 1:35.81 also withstood a challenge from Drury’s Sergiy Bilov, who won this year’s race in 1:36.74, just ahead of Wingate’s Gus Chagas.

There'll be six more finals tonight, including the 500-free and a pair of 100s -- the backstroke and breaststroke -- in which Drury can try to catch the Warriors and secure a fifth straight national championship.

Team standings after Day 2

1. Wayne State (Michigan), 232.5; 2. Drury, 218; 3.Limestone, 171.5; 4. (tie) Missouri S&T and Ouachita Baptist, 138.

Event winners from Day 2

200-yard freestyle relay: Limestone, 1:19.25*

400-yard individual medley: Kyrillo Fesenko, Drury, 3:49.17*

100-yard butterfly: Duarte Mourao, Wayne State (Michigan), 47.25

200-yard freestyle: Sergiy Bilov, Drury, 1:36.74

400-yard medley relay: Wayne State (Michigan), 3:14.15*

*meet record