Canton, Ohio----The Wingate University men’s swimming finished the third night of the 2010 NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships with a flourish Friday, placing second in the 800 Freestyle Relay at the C.T. Branin Natatorium. The Bulldog men are sixth on the team charts, while the Wingate women are 26th. Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania is the host for this year’s national championships.

For the Wingate women, junior Nicole Moody (Grovetown, Ga.) earned honorable mention All-American honors with her 16th place finish in the 100 backstroke Friday. Moody’s time was 57.69, barely missing her school record time of 57.46 established in the 2009 national meet in Houston.

The Bulldogs also earned honorable mention All-American laurels in the 800 Freestyle Relay, placing 16th with a time of 7:47.32. Swimming the distance relay for the Bulldogs were senior Samantha Vencl (Wickliffe, Ohio), juniors Kelsey Trabue (South Lyon, Mich.) and Cheryl Vaccaro (Charlotte, N.C.) and freshman Paige Schmidt (Clearwater, Fla.).

The Wingate men added five first team All-American honors Friday, led by the senior-laden 800 Freestyle Relay team of Mason Norman (Duluth, Ga.), Kyle Corcoran (Kent, Wash.), Daniel DeFrancisco (Cali, Colombia) and Gus Chagas (Recife, Brazil). The Bulldog quartet finished the endurance race in 6:39.51. Drury (Mo.) University won the event with a time of 6:35.65.

Bulldog freshman Rory Julyan (Cape Town, South Africa) came up big in his 100 Breaststroke race Friday, placing third to earn his second All-American honor. Julyan’s finals time of 55.03 is a new school record. University of Bridgeport (Conn.) sophomore Pitor Safronczyk won the race with a time of 54.40. Julyan also split the fastest 50 Breaststroke leg in the nation during last night’s 200 Medley Relay.

Norman won the “B” Final for the 100 Breaststroke with a time of 56.12. The ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America® candidate swam the opening leg of the 800 Freestyle Relay for the Bulldogs. Corcoran and De Francisco swam the second and third legs, while Chagas swam the anchor leg. On Thursday night, Chagas won the national championship in the 200 Freestyle.

Drury leads the men’s team standings with 401 points. Wingate is sixth with 214 points. Drury also tops the women’s team leader board with 473 points. Wingate has 18 points. The 2010 competition concludes Saturday at the C.T. Branin Natatorium in Canton.

Fans can access the national meet website (live video streaming, live statistics, etc.) at the following address:

http://www.ncaa.com/sports/c-swim/champpage/c-swim-div2-index.html

(Wingate University sports information student assistant Daniel Hoagland contributed this article. Hoagland is a junior Chemistry major from Wilmington, N.C.).