Friday, by the numbers
Some overdue appreciation of the Chicago men's team. And we will look through the results of prelims and see if we should run another sim before tonight.
59.62
That’s the NCAA Division III record in women’s 100 Breast. It is held by Kenyon senior and greatest sprint breaststroker in the history of Division III, Jennah Fadely.
Here is what our psych sheet says. KT Kustritz was awesome, no doubt. But the Division III record in women’s 100 Breast was set this season, in a meet at Princeton, by the above mentioned Ms. Fadely.
1:39.51
Remember when we mentioned that MIT’s relays pose a problem for everyone else? That includes swimmers who've retired. Yesterday, MIT's dream team—Kate Augustyn, Sarah Bernard, Annika Naveen, and Ella Roberson—set a new Division III record in the women’s 200 Medley Relay with a time of 1:39.51, breaking the previous mark established by Emory in 2023 (1:39.55). Eagle legends all: Megan Jungers, Anna Glowniak, Taylor Leone, and Caroline Maki. Anyway, MIT continues to add to its collection of achievements at this meet.
6:26.98 x 2
Chicago’s relay team in the men’s 800 Free—Alexander Schwartz, Cooper Costello, Sebi Vernhes, and John Butler—tied the Division III record previously set in 2023 by Emory’s Nick Goudie, Crow Thorsen, Jason Hamilton, and Pat Pema. Interesting day for Emory’s 2023 relay records. (Emory's 2023 record in men's 200 Medley Relay—Ryan Soh, Jake Meyer, Jeff Echols, Colin Lafave—survived the day).
Keep in mind that Chicago also won the men’s 200 Free Relay earlier in this meet (Jonathan Tang, Rylan Kruep, Igor Benderskii, and Sebi Vernhes). And Cooper Costello just broke the men’s 100 Fly record (and finished second in 200 Fly). And Chicago placed two athletes in the championship final of men’s 200 Free (Butler and Vernhes). And at the end of three days of competition, they are in third place.
At the beginning of the season, given the departure of Garrett Clasen and Jesse Ssengonzi—the two greatest swimmers in the history of that program—we expressed some skepticism that Chicago could remain highly competitive in men’s events this season. John Butler, a Chicago first-year, texted us immediately to suggest we were wrong. Looks like we were.
53.41 x 3
At last season’s Nationals, Kate Augustyn set the new Division III record in the women’s 100 Back—sort of—going 53.41 in the opening leg of the 400 Medley Relay. Don’t get us wrong, she did break the record, but it’s a little anticlimactic (if that is the right word), breaking an individual event record with the opening leg of the relay. It counts, but it’s not the same. No matter, she came back the next day and won the women’s 100 Back with a record time—sort of, because she sort of already had the record—anyway, a record time of…53.41.
Hey guess what? Division III women’s 100 Back record-holder Kate Augustyn is again national champion in women’s 100 Back having won the event yesterday with a time of…53.41. Seriously, Kate, what are the odds?
21.86, 22.00, 22.00
In the championship final, those were the fastest backstroke splits in the men’s 200 Medley relay—in order, Kyle Wolford (a grad student at WashU), Eric Lundgren (a senior from Tufts), and NYU first-year Teddy McQuaid. Torch passed.
[Yes, we know Djordje Dragojlovic is a junior and went 21.88 in the consolation final, but that screws up our narrative so we are ignoring that for the moment.]
1:42.64
That’s the new Division III record in men’s 200 Fly, set by the guy who established a new record (1:43.21) in this event last year—Justin Finkel. Same guy who won men’s 500 Free on day one.
96
The number of points Centre College1 scored in men’s 1 meter and 3 meter diving, Wednesday and yesterday. All their points are from diving. At the end of the day yesterday, they were two points away from cracking the top ten.
51
The number of points scored by the four NYU swimmers in the women’s 200 Fly finals. By now, these names are familiar—Nicole Ranile, Caitlin Marshall, Reina Gomez, and Bethany Spangler. Depending on what happens later, that might turn out to have been a big moment.
Centre College is a private liberal arts institution located in Danville, Kentucky, with approximately 1,350 undergraduate students.
With those last 2 Emory women’s records falling, it really feels like the end of an era. I’m very happy for NYU and MIT though and am excited to see one of them raise the championship trophy tonight.