NCAA Division II Performance List

Complete Results
CLEVELAND, Miss. – While one streak ended, one remained intact Saturday night at the New South Intercollegiate Swim Championships. The Bulldog women were not atop the podium for the first time in their eighth NSISC meet but kept an amazing streak of 23 years placing either first or second in a conference meet.

The Bulldogs were second to Henderson State (Ark.) accumulated 686 points to Henderson's 777. Truman had won all seven NSISC meets they had participated in and had a string of 11 straight conference championships dating back to the 1999-2000 season. The Truman women have finished first or second in a conference meet since the 1988-89 campaign.

Abby Hempen and Casey Jepsen brought home individual titles for the Bulldogs in the final night of competition before nationals. Hempen won the 200 breaststroke in a time of 2:18.71 that broke the previous NSISC record held also by Truman's Michael Osborn of 2:20.62. Taylor Birsa was second in the race, touching the wall in 2:20.67.

Jepsen paced the field in the 100 free with a time of 52.01 while Jessica Jenkot finished fifth with a time of 52.23, both times met B-cut NCAA standards.

Allison Harding in the 1650 free and Beth Eyanson in the 200 back also notched B-cut marks in their respective events.

On the men's side, Brian Tillis placed seventh in the 1650 free with a B-cut time of 16:24.52 while Zac Litzau also earned a B-cut time in the 200 Fly swimming 1:54.89.

Tony Hernandez advanced to the A-final and placed eighth while Andrew Tuisl finished second in the B-final of the 200 breaststroke.

The Truman men finished in sixth place with 332 points while Missouri S&T won the championship with 752 points.

Eight Bulldogs earned All-NSISC honors by scoring over 41 points in the meet. Abby Hempen and Casey Jepsen scored 56, Beth Eyanson scored 50, Taylor Birsa 49, Allison Harding 45, Margaux Kent and Jessica Jenkot scored 43 while Jerod Simek scored 55 for the men.

First year head coach Ed Pretre was named the NSISC Women's Coach of the Year during the meet.

The squads will find out who has qualified for the NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships on Wednesday with the meet being hosted by Henderson State in Mansfield, Texas on March 14-17.



Day Three Recap
CLEVELAND, Miss. – Two individual championships and several B-cut times highlighted night three of the New South Intercollegiate Swim Conference meet on Friday night. The women are 28 points out of first place while the men have scored 254 points thus far.

Two women brought home conference individual championships on Friday night as Casey Jepsen and Abby Hempen won their respective events. Jepsen won the 200 free in a B-cut time of 1:52.51 while Hempen touched the wall first in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:04.40. She was first of three Bulldogs in the A-final as Margaux Kent-3rd and Jessica Jenkot-6th also achieved B-cut times.

Beth Eyanson finished runner-up in a pair of events as she came in second in the 100 Fly and 100 backstroke both in B-cut times. Her 100 Fly time of 55.77 broke the Truman school record previous held by Tanya Slyvester of 55.88 set in 2009.

The women are in second place with 485 points and trail Henderson State (Ark.) who has scored 513 points.
The men turned in three B-cut times and had a near-miss on a fourth. Jerod Simek continued his strong meet with a fourth place finish in the 400IM with a B-time of 4:05.24, while Etienne Thro took second in the B-final, 10th overall in the 100 Fly with a B-cut time of 51.27.

In the 100 breaststroke, Tony Hernandez was fifth, grabbing a B-cut time of 58.26 while teammate Lars
Winkelmolen came in sixth but was nine-hundredths of a second from the B-time touching the wall in 58.99.

The men have scored 254 points and sit in sixth place.


Day Two Recap
CLEVELAND, Miss. – Night two of the New South Intercollegiate Swim Championships saw Jerod Simek win his second individual title and the Bulldog women won both relay events. The men are sixth with 167 team points while the women trail second place Delta State by three and a half points.

The women won the opening event on the evening by taking the 200 free relay in a time of 1:36.91. The relay was swum by Jessica Jenkot, Casey Jepsen, Bailey Peterson and Beth Eyanson.
Jepsen and Allison Harding both swam B cut times in the 500 free with Jepsen finishing third in 5:03.01 and Harding sixth in 5:08.81.

The Bulldogs jumped to second place in the team standings with three individuals in the A finals of the 200IM. Abby Hempen was third, Taylor Birsa was fourth and Margaux Kent seventh as the trio all swam B cut times.
Jenkot and Peterson were in the A finals in the 50 free. Jenkot finished third in a B-time of 24.31 and Peterson was eighth also in a B-time of 24.83.

In their final event of the night, Jenkot, Hempen, Eyanson, and Jepsen took down the NSISC Record in the 400 Medley relay. The quartet swam 3:50.20 that broke the previous record also held by Truman set back in 2005.
Henderson State used Diving points to take over first while Delta State has 261.5 points while Truman is in third with 257, Ouachita Baptist sits in fourth at 222.5, Centenary is fifth with 176 and Drury is sixth at 113.

The men scored the majority of their points on Thursday in the 500 free as Jerod Simek won his second individual title of the meet taking the event in a B-time of 4:33.17. Brian Tillis was seventh overall and Zac Litzau was second in the B-final and 10th overall.

Nick Harl, Tony Hernandez, Etienne Thro and Seth Holbrook closed the session with a sixth place finish in the 400 Medley Relay.



Wednesday Recap -
CLEVELAND, Miss. – Jerod Simek and Allison Harding turned in the top performances for the Bulldog swimming teams as they began the New South Intercollegiate Swim Championships on Wednesday night. Simek won the 1000 Free while Harding was second in the women's 1000.

Simek cruised to a season-best time of 9:23.26 in taking all 20 first place points while Brian Tillis was eighth touching the wall in 9:46.40.

Harding was second in her race but did achieve an NCAA “B” cut time of 10:25.28 in the 1000. Nikki Imhof was 12th with a time of 11:02.55.

The only other event contested in night one was the 200 medley relays. The women finished second with a "B" cut time of 1:46.42 while the men came in seventh in a time of 1:37.85.