November 8, 1999.....Contact: John Kean.....Phone: 573-341-4140

MINER SWIMMERS TO HOST DRURY AFTER SWEEPING TRIO

ROLLA, Mo.--The University of Missouri-Rolla swimming team swept three opponents over the weekend at Truman State University and now sets its sights on the defending national champions.

UMR will host Drury College Friday at the UMR Pool in the Gale Bullman Multi-Purpose Building at 6 p.m. Drury won the NCAA Division II championship last season. The Miners will also compete Saturday against Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield, Mo.

The Miners opened their busy weekend Friday by beating Truman State in a dual meet 116-89. UMR swimmers won eight of the 11 events, as seven different Miners won individual events as well as the 400-yard freestyle relay team of Mike Lach (Lenexa, Kan./Shawnee Mission West), Vanja Dezelic (Zagreb, Croatia), David Nurre (Lewisville, Texas) and Dave Belleville (Chesterfield, Mo./Marquette).

That quartet, which posted a winning time of 3:13.90, also got individual wins from each of the members. Dezelic won the 1,000-freestyle in 10:07.95; Nurre the 200-freestyle in 1:47.39; Lach the 50-freestyle in 22.17; and Belleville in the 100-freestyle in 47.22 seconds.

The other three winners were Steve Caruso (Florissant, Mo./Hazelwood Central) in the 200-butterfly in 1:57.84, Ben Karstens (Littleton, Colo./Dakota Ridge) in the 200-backstroke in 2:00.94 and Bruno Amizic (Split, Croatia) in the 200-breaststroke in 2:13.07.

UMR went on to post wins Saturday over Lewis and South Dakota, the latter of whom finished third at last year's NCAA Division II Championships.

Miner swimmers won every event in both of Saturday's meets. Lach won the 50-freestyle and 100-backstroke in the Lewis meet, while Nurre posted wins in the 100- and 200-yard freestyle events. Against South Dakota, Belleville won the 50-freestyle and also had the best time in the 100-free, when he was swimming as an exhibition entry.