Engineer Empire
Meant to be a weekend wrap-up, we instead ponder whether MIT's women might crush some D3 records. And we conclude with the obligatory acknowledgement that Emory is better than everyone else.
MIT vs. Harvard vs. Northeastern
Harvard swimming (outside of our wheelhouse) appears to be quite good. We are going to guess that they are good (to some extent) for the same reason that MIT, or Hopkins, or Chicago are so good. Which is that these schools have such a colossal academic reputation (and jaw-dropping career earnings data), that they get commits from swimmers who could have easily found a place at a Power Five school.
So, we draw two observations from this meet. One, the above mentioned ‘Harvard is really fast’ observation. And, two, MIT, especially the MIT women, looks better than we expected. And we expected them to be top five in the division. We will have much praise to heap upon Kate Augustyn, Alex Turvey, and Ella Roberson as the season progresses. But…
Right now it is Sarah Bernard who has us shaking our heads. Her 2:16.67 200 Breast is the single most impressive swim in all of Division III so far this season (1.58 SRS Points). For context, the invite time for 200 Breast at Nationals last season was 2:19.78. We think it not premature for Ms. Bernard’s family to start exploring the housing options for Greensboro in March (hint: the hotels aren’t great; you might want to get an AirBnB).
Ms. Bernard’s 2:16.67 was so fast that we felt obligated to check the HyTek for timer mechanical error, but it looks legit. If anything, the details are even more surprising.
Ms. Bernard went 34.32 in the last 50 yards. In the history of Division III national championships, only two athletes have gone 34.32 or faster in the last 50 yards of 200 Breast at nationals, Jordyn Wentzel and Jennah Fadely. And they both emerged as national champions in that event.1
The obvious question is, given the following personnel, is MIT going to take down both Division III medley relay records?
Kate Augustyn (BK)
Iris Yang (BK)2
Sarah Bernard (BR)3
Annika Naveen (FL, FR)
Sydney Smith (FL)
Alex Turvey (FL, FR)
Ella Roberson (FR)
Rachel Yang (FR)
Bonus question: Harvard’s Stephanie Iannaccone holds the national record in 100m Breast for which country?
Emory
Sorry to bury the lede here. Emory is clearly the best team in Division III right now. Here is a ranking, by athlete and by event, of the top SRS scores.
Yes, we understand that those national championship times were about 6 seconds faster than Ms. Bernard’s current 200 BR time. And we understand that the effort exerted in the first 150 yards affects the speed of the last 50 yards.
But, it is still October. Ms. Bernard’s swim is really impressive.
We did not fail to notice that Iris Yang’s 100 BK effort in this meet was better than the 2024 invite time by a good half-second. On any other team, we would place her in the number-one slot for this race. But her teammate is Ms. Augustyn, who currently holds the division record in this event.
Ms. Bernard’s 1:04.43 is the fastest Women’s 100 BR in the division so far this year.
MIT's backstroke squad (on the women's side) could be lethal come NCAAs. Beyond Augustyn and Yang, Smith and Naveen have also been 55-point in the 100.
Tbf MIT’s Men’s class came out swinging in certain areas. Tobe dropping a nation leading 20.30 what I’m assuming was Unsuited is insane in October and a 19.5 relay split too.