ELKHART, Ind. – Drury University was crowned with its seventh Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) Men's Swimming and Diving Championship on Saturday night at the Elkhart Health and Aquatics.
The Panthers scored a total of 1,770 points for the win, besting this year’s runner-up McKendree University (1,734.5) by 35.5 points. University of Indianapolis finished in third with 1,407 points, while Missouri S&T (844) and Lewis University (812.5) rounded out the top five in fourth and fifth, respectively. University of Missouri-St. Louis (602.5) and Rockhurst University (516) claimed sixth and seventh, respectively. Coming in at eighth and ninth were Quincy University (417) and William Jewell College (408.5), while Truman State University (235) and Maryville University (157) rounded out the 11-team field.
A total of 12 men’s records were broken over the course of the five-day event, including three on the final day of competition. Drury’s Israel Zavaleta started the points scoring off for the day with a win in the Men’s 1-meter diving. Indianapolis’ Cedric Buessing continued his great weekend by winning the 1650 yard freestyle in 15:04.27. Yuri Cabral from Drury gave the Panthers more points on their way to a title, with the sophomore winning in a time of 43.51. Patryck Rozenek from McKendree set a new league record in the 200 yard backstroke with a time of 1:43.04. Following him in the record breaking streak was Indianapolis’ Jeremias Pock, who broke the 200 yard breaststroke record by more than three seconds with his time of 1:52.08. To cap off the night, the McKendree 400 relay team of Vova Gavrysh, Arthur Souza, Alireza Yavari, and Tyson Upton broke the 20th and last record of the 2025 championships with a time of 2:52.88.
At the conclusion of the meet, UIndy’s Buessing four-peated as the GLVC Swimmer of the Year, while Drury’s Israel Zavaleta was recognized as GLVC Diver of the Year. Additionally, McKendree’s Gavrysh was named GLVC Freshman of the Year, and Bearcats’ head coach Jimmy Tierney was voted by his peers as GLVC Coach of the Year. Other than Diver of the Year, which is awarded to the diver(s) who earns the most total team points, the postseason honors are voted on by the league’s 11 head coaches. Per GLVC Bylaws, coaches are not permitted to vote for their own student-athletes.
The coaches also selected Missouri S&T as the recipient of the GLVC James R. Spalding Sportsmanship Award in the sport, while 11 student-athletes were named GLVC James R. Spalding Sportsmanship Award honorees. These individuals must be in good academic standing and have demonstrated good citizenship outside of the sports-competition setting. The honorees from full-time GLVC member institutions are now eligible to become one of their school's two Spalding Sportsmanship Award winners, which will be announced at the end of the academic year.
All postseason honorees can be found below.
Swimmer of the Year: Cedric Buessing, UINDY
Diver of the Year: Israel Zavaleta, DU
Freshman of the Year: Vova Gavrysh, MCK
Coach of the Year: Jimmy Tierney, MCK
GLVC JAMES R. SPALDING SPORTSMANSHIP TEAM AWARD
Missouri S&T
GLVC JAMES R. SPALDING SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD HONOREES
Colby Hughes, DU
Yaaseen Yunus, UINDY
Amadeusz Kielczewski, LEWIS
Hank Word, MU
Joey Ovanic, MCK
Jake Hale, S&T
Will Cottle, UMSL
Wojciech Chalat, QU
Collin Ho, RU
Reid Latall, TSU
Jack Rosebaugh, WJC