EVANSVILLE, Ind. – University of Missouri-St. Louis junior women's swimmer Justice Beard won the 500 freestyle on Friday evening to win her second national championship at the 2026 NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships at the Deaconess Aquatic Center in Evansville, Ind.

Beard, swimming out of lane five, in the final heat of the morning preliminary swim posted the top qualifying time of 4:49.30. She followed it up with a dominant performance in the final during the first event of the evening session as she defeated Nova Southeastern's Hailey Williams by more than two seconds to become the first Triton in school history with multiple national championships.

Beard finished with a time of 4:48.09 breaking her own school record and is the seventh fastest time in the history of the 500 free at the NCAA meet.

UMSL's 200-yard freestyle relay team of Audrey Lantz, Romina Itzkovich, Ella Lantz and Beard finished second in the first of three heats in the final and finished 15th overall in a time of 1:35.18 to earn honorable mention All-America honors.

E. Lantz swam in the preliminary swim of the 100 back and finished with a time of 56.75 seconds but didn't qualify for the evening session.

The Tritons are 16th out of 33 teams with 49 points heading into Saturday's final day of competition.

Saturday's final day will see preliminary swims in the 100 free, 200 back, 200 breast and 1650 free plus the 400 free relay final will be in the evening session.

A. Lantz will swim in the 100 free, Uxue Ortiz de Pinedo and Aaron Wicklund will swim in their respective 200 breast races while Beard, the number one seed, will swim in the 1650 final during the afternoon session.