Beard Wins Second Nationwide Championship, Takes House 500 Free Title – University of Missouri

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – University of Missouri-St. Louis junior girls’s swimmer Justice Beard received the five hundred freestyle on Friday night to win her second nationwide championship on the 2026 NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships on the Deaconess Aquatic Center in Evansville, Ind.

Beard, swimming out of lane 5, within the ultimate warmth of the morning preliminary swim posted the highest qualifying time of 4:49.30. She adopted it up with a dominant efficiency within the ultimate throughout the first occasion of the night session as she defeated Nova Southeastern’s Hailey Williams by greater than two seconds to turn out to be the primary Triton in class historical past with a number of nationwide championships.

Beard completed with a time of 4:48.09 breaking her personal faculty file and is the seventh quickest time within the historical past of the five hundred free on the NCAA meet.

UMSL’s 200-yard freestyle relay group of Audrey Lantz, Romina Itzkovich, Ella Lantz and Beard completed second within the first of three heats within the ultimate and completed fifteenth general in a time of 1:35.18 to earn honorable point out All-America honors.

E. Lantz swam within the preliminary swim of the 100 again and completed with a time of 56.75 seconds however did not qualify for the night session.

The Tritons are sixteenth out of 33 groups with 49 factors heading into Saturday’s ultimate day of competitors.

Saturday’s ultimate day will see preliminary swims within the 100 free, 200 again, 200 breast and 1650 free plus the 400 free relay ultimate shall be within the night session.

A. Lantz will swim within the 100 free, Uxue Ortiz de Pinedo and Aaron Wicklund will swim of their respective 200 breast races whereas Beard, the primary seed, will swim within the 1650 ultimate throughout the afternoon session.