Drury University - Athletics

Athletics

The school was a founding member of the Heartland Conference. In the Fall of 2005, the Drury Panthers joined the Great Lakes Valley Conference. Drury sponsors NCAA Division II intercollegiate athletic teams in men's and women's basketball, men's and women's cross country, men's and women's golf, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's swimming, men's and women's tennis, men's baseball, women's softball, and women's volleyball.

Baseball, in hiatus since the 1970s, was reorganized for the 2007 season by new Head Coach Mark Stratton. The 2007 team was composed mainly of freshmen, with two seniors (Tony Lewis and Brian York) on the roster. In the pre-season picks, Drury Baseball was picked to finish last in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. However, the Drury Panther Baseball team won a bid into their conference tournament. They took this opportunity, and went undefeated to become the 2007 Great Lakes Valley Conference Champions. This gave them an automatic bid into the NCAA Division-II tournament. While they eventually were defeated by Grand Valley State (ranked 6th in the nation), the Drury Panthers sent home two Great Lakes Intercollegiate Conference teams (Ashland and Saginaw Valley State, which out ranked the last seeded Drury), and finished third in the NCAA Division-II Regional. Tony Lewis was the recipient of the Rawlings Golden Glove Award. Lewis and Joe Rohlfing were named to the All-Tournament team for the NCAA Division-II North Central Regional. Drury ended the season going 33-24.

Drury men's swimming head coach Brian Reynolds was recently inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.

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