Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Saluki Men Whip Defending Division II National Champs in Swimming
03/14/2001 | 12:00:00 | Swimming & Diving
October 9, 2000
Springfield, Mo. -
With a take no prisoners attitude the Southern Illinois University Carbondale men's swimming and diving team whipped defending NCAA Division II national champion Drury College Saturday.
The Salukis finished first in 10 of the 13 events in compiling a 133-94 margin of victory. The Dawgs will return to Springfield Saturday to compete in the Missouri Valley Conference Relays in which each of the Valley schools will bring eleven swimmers. The Saluki traveling squad will be announced later this week.
"It was a good meet," SIU assistant men's swimming coach Sean Weddell said. "The guys were pretty beat up and tired and swam real well under those conditions. We saw some real good times, especially from some of the freshmen."
Derek Helvey, Matt Munz and Luke Watruba each won two events while the remaining five first place finishes went to five individuals including Jake Sinclair winning the one-meter diving event and Joel Hanger winning the three-meter.
Helvey, a freshman from Bartlett, won the 1000-yard freestyle event and followed that with a win in the 500-yard freestyle. Munz, a junior from St. Charles, Mo., won the 200-yard individual medley and teamed with Corne Prozesky, Luke Watruba and Chris Papachrysanthou to win the 400-yard medley relay.
Wotruba, who returned to the team after sitting out last season, also picked up a win in the 100-yard butterfly. Papachrysanthou was swimming his first meet since returning from Sydney, Australia where he competed in the 2000 Olympics for his native country Cyprus. He finished second in the 100-yard freestyle.
Other winners for the Dawgs were freshman B.J. Bourne in the 200-yard freestyle, senior David Parkins in the 50-yard freestyle and sophomore Danila Luna in the 100-yard backstroke.
"B.J. Bourne was especially good in his event," Weddell said. "We are kind of worried when he went out kind of quick and thought he might die in the stretch, but he held on. So that was a good swim from him."
