BIRMINGHAM, ALA. – The Queens University of Charlotte men's and women's swimming teams secured their sixth straight NCAA Division II Swimming & Diving National Championships on Saturday from the Birmingham CrossPlex. The women totaled 695 team points in the meet, defeating second place Drury University by a 254-point margin, while the men collected 561 team points to defeat Drury by a 30-point margin.
 
"What a year! We are so thankful that Queens and our administration blessed us with the opportunity to compete," said Associate Athletic Director/Director of Swimming Jeff Dugdale. "We are grateful and appreciative of our partnership with HaleSports as they played a big role in our success helping us navigate a fluid year.
 
'We were given every excuse in the world not to be our best. However, our program took to our heart our Athletic Director's [Cherie Swarthout] expectation to find a way to emerge from this pandemic better than we entered a year ago."
 
For the men, Matej Dusa earned a runner-up finish in the 100-Yard Freestyle with a time of 42.87 before Jan Delkeskamp swam to all-america honors with a fourth-place finish in the 200-Yard Breaststroke. Teammate Balazs Berecz was also all-american in the race, finishing seventh overall.
 
The meet came to a close with a runner-up finish for the Royals in the 400-Yard Freestyle Relay as the grouping of Alex Kunert, Dusa, Skyler Cook-Weeks, and Luke Erwee clocked a time of 2:52.98 in the race.
 
The women dominated in distance competition, beginning Saturday's final session with a1-2 finish in the 1,650-Yard Freestyle from Francesca Bains and Sophie Lange. Rebecca Dany also finished among the Top 5 to add to Queens' point total.
 
Queens got another 1-2 finish in the 100-Yard Freestyle as Lexie Baker edged out Danielle Melilli by .01 to claim the individual title. Hannah Foster finished eight in the race to earn all-america honors.
 
Rachel Massaro was the runner-up in the 200-Yard Backstroke, followed by teammate Vladyslava Maznystska who finished third overall. The Royals ended the night with a second-place finish in the 400-Yard Freestyle Relay as the foursome of Baker, Foster, Massaro and Bains reached the wall in 3:21.53.
 
"My hope is that the two national championship trophies arriving on campus will demonstrate our theme: to serve we first must give. To educate we first must learn. To inspire we must do. #together by Coleman Ruiz," Dugdale continued. "It is time to light the lion!"
 
Over the four-day meet, the women won eight events, including two individual titles from Melilii (100-Yard Breaststroke and 50-Yard Freestyle) and three-of-four relay races. The men won three events, including individual titles for Alex Kunert in the 200-Yard Butterfly and 200-Yard Freestyle and a relay gold in the 800-Yard Freestyle Relay.