ROLLA, Mo. – With the Great Lakes Valley Conference Championships on the horizon, Missouri S&T's swimming team will take part in its final dual meet of the 2020-21 season Friday when it hosts Drury at the S&T Pool beginning at 4 p.m.

The Miners, who have moved up to No. 11 in the CollegeSwimming.com rankings following a dual meet win over McKendree on Jan. 8, will face the top-ranked Panthers in the Miners' third matchup of the season against a team ranked in the top 10.  S&T previously beat Delta State when it was ranked third and McKendree was at No. 8 when the Miners won that dual meet.

Missouri S&T won five events in the McKendree, with junior Andy Huffman (Lee's Summit, MO/Lee's Summit) capturing three of the individual wins as he recorded first place finishes in the 200-yard individual medley, 200-yard butterfly and 200-yard breaststroke.  The Miners have posted one B-cut time thus far on the season – coming from Alec Davis (Joplin, MO/Joplin) in the 200-yard freestyle in a December meet at Missouri-St. Louis – and currently rank in the top 15 nationally in three relays.

S&T's 200-yard medley relay team has posted the 12^th-fastest time in the country this season of 1:31.59, while the 400-yard freestyle relay is currently 15^th in the nation with a time of 3:08.97 as is the 400-medley relay team at 3:25.36.

Drury's Karol Ostrowski has posted the fastest time of the season in NCAA Division II in the 50-yard freestyle of 19.09 seconds and has made an automatic NCAA Division II mark in that event along with Alexander Bowen, who has a time of 19.51 that is second in the nation.  Ostrowski also has the nation's fastest mark in the 100-freestyle of 41.50 seconds and 100-backstroke of 46.84 seconds  – both automatic qualifying marks – as well as the 200-freestyle of 1:36.27.

Meanwhile, Nathan Bighetti has the fastest time in the nation in the 200-yard backstroke of 1:42.69 and James Brown has done likewise in both individual medley events (1:45.09 in the 200, 3:48.95 in the 400) that have surpassed the automatic NCAA standard, while Oleksii Khnykin has the top mark in the 100-yard butterfly of 47.14 seconds.  In addition, the Panthers own the fastest national time in all five relays, meaning Drury competitors have the top marks at this time in 13 different events.

The Miners and Panthers are among eight GLVC teams ranked in the top 20 in the latest CollegeSwimming.com rankings for NCAA Division II.  Besides those two, Lindenwood is currently ranked second, Indianapolis is fifth, McKendree is eighth, Missouri-St. Louis is 10^th, Lewis is at No. 15 and Truman State is ranked 16^th.

No spectators will be permitted to Friday's meet per GLVC guidelines, but live coverage will be available through the GLVC Sports Network.