CLEVELAND, Miss. - Coming off of a tough start to the season, facing a pair of Division I schools along with the conference and national champions, Delta State will head to Arkadelphia, Ark., to face both Henderson State and Ouachita Baptist.  The Statesmen are ranked No. 21, while the Lady Statesmen find themselves at No. 13 in the latest polls released by CollegeSwimming.com.

The Statesmen have been swimming well, despite dropping both meets over the past weekend, with wins coming in relay events and individual events against Missouri S&T.  Vlad Zinca picked up a victory in the 100-Butterfly (50.96) and Yvan Nys added another individual victory in the 100-Backstroke (52.18).  Nys would also swim a leg on the winning 400-Medley Relay team with Clayton Boyd, Vlad Zinca, and Fabrice Wendel.

The next day had both teams in the pool at Drury University.  Matthew Swaine claimed the 1-M diving competition with a total of 270.89, while Conner Bennett was third with a score of 228.82.  That would be the only event that would see the Statesmen atop the standings.  Ben Vaughan (9:57.45) and Bryce Anderson (10:02.05) would finish second and third in the 1,000-Freestyle; Wendel (47.08) wound up second in the 100-Freestyle.  Zinca placed third in the 200-Butterfly (1:57.40) while Nys was runner-up in the 200-Backstroke (1:58.32).

The Lady Statesmen had a strong showing, with the highlight of the meet coming in the Women's 400-Individual Medley.  Melanie Tombers won the race with a new school record time of 4:27.83, ahead of the prior record set in 2005.  Kierstin Page was second in the race, with a time that is now good enough for third in the school record book trailing only the new and old records.  Page was also runner up in the 200-Backstroke where she was defeated by a 2008 Olympian, as she entered the top-10 all-time in another event.

Both HSU and OBU have had just one meet this season, with OBU winning both the men's and women's meets.  Henderson State sits at No. 15 in the men's poll, and are unranked on the women's side; while OBU is unranked on either side.

Zinca has the nation's sixth best time in the 100-Butterfly (50.12) and seventh best in the 200-Butterfly (1:52.23).  Tombers has the ninth best time in the 200-Freestyle (1:54.97), the fourth in the 500-Freestyle (5:03.73), along with the fastest time in the country in the 400-Individual Medley.  Page boasts the seventh best time thus far in the 200-Backstroke (2:05.19), along with the third best in the 400-Individual Medley.