Saturday Finals

Thanks for your patience.

1650 Free

Men

With 15 minutes and 17 seconds elapsed, Lucas Lang of CMS and Connor Vincent of NYU were basically neck and neck. Mr. Lang touched the wall 0.07 seconds ahead of Mr. Vincent. Astonishing.

Lucas Lang, CMS

Kellen Roddy won this event in 2022 and 2023 and had the top time coming into Nationals. This was an off swim for him - a conclusion requiring little analysis because Mr. Roddy rarely loses. The loss broke one of the more remarkable streaks since swimming resumed post-COVID and brings to a close this chapter in the career of one of the most extraordinary distance swimmers in Division III history.¹

After this event, the points table looked like this.

Women

Kristin Cornish, also from Johns Hopkins, and also the winner of the mile for the last two years, came into this event with the top time. Her finish however was more than 15 seconds off her event winning time last year.

Kenyon, with a slim three-point lead entering the final day, seemed poised to cede it back to Denison (based on the psych sheet). However, Kenyon's First-Year Bengisu Caymaz, Sophomore Molly Haag, and Senior Sarah Hoffman combined to slightly overperform. Denison’s variance went ever so slightly in the other direction. The net effect was that Kenyon maintained their lead, with the remaining events (on paper) favoring the Kenyon ladies.

After the first event of the day, here is how it looked.

100 Free

Men

A remarkable event for Kenyon, scoring 49 points.

This is really where the separation from the other contenders became entrenched, with Kenyon fewer than 20 points behind Emory, but almost 50 points ahead of third place Chicago.

For the second year in a row, Djordje Dragojlovic won 100 Free, and this was his second event win at the meet (he is also national champion in 100 Back). He finished second in 50 Free, 0.03 seconds back from the winner, Tobe Obochi. Mr. Obochi is a Senior, but again we do not know about his eligibility, or intent, for next year. Regardless, in all events of 50 or 100 yards, there is only one repeat champion from last season and that is Mr. Dragojlovic.

It is worth noting that there is only one other repeat champion from last year (James McChesney, TCNJ, 200 Free). At last nationals there were six repeat champions in men’s events:

• Garrett Clasen - 200 IM

• Kellen Roddy - 1650 FR

• Frank Applebaum - 200 Fly

• Bryan Fitzgerald - 400 IM

• Tanner Filion - 200 Back

• Jason Hamilton - 200 Breast

Mr. McChesney’s 200 Free wins have been remarkable. The first one set the new 200 Free record. His 200 Free swim from this year did not top his record, but by SRS only Derek Maas had a better swim in a men’s event at Nationals.²

Women

Look at this championship final.

Alex Turvey is blazing fast, one of the fastest sprinters ever in Division III and Kaley McIntyre never gave her an inch.

As the authors of a post - from the beginning of this season - that predicted Kendra Stern’s records were safe, we can only urge you to learn from our mistakes.³ Don’t risk the public humiliation that comes from betting against Kaley McIntyre.

Or think about it this way. In March of 2013, when eight-year-old Kaley McIntyre swam her last 50 Free of the winter season, winning her 8-under heat in 36.24, Kendra Stern’s record had been on the books for almost three years.⁴

200 Back

Men

Alex McCormick has been building towards this for years, finishing 5th in 2022, tying for 2nd place last year, and finally getting the win. It’s talent plus hard work plus a thoughtful approach to swim training plus good timing. It’s hard to be anything but happy for him. That his longtime teammate Kyle Wolford also medaled is a nice touch.

Yurii Kosian and the now ever-present Ethan Manske did their parts to keep Kenyon’s hopes alive. But we can all count. Ryan Soh, Alex Pollack, Adam Braunschweig, Graham Zucker: advantage Emory.

Women

This was one more event where Kenyon extended its lead over Denison, this time thanks to Caleigh Wukitch, finishing 3rd and securing 16 points. Two Denison swimmers - Emily Harris (who had a great season) and First-Year Jasmine Park - combined for seven points in the B final.

Kate Augustyn took this by more than a second, finishing in 1:55.98, meaning she was way closer to breaking Crile Hart’s 2018 record (1:55.67) than she was to second place. Kate Augustyn’s performance at Nationals was just extraordinary.

Ms. Augustyn after swimming 100 Back in a Division III record time of 53.41 (for the second time in 24 hours)

To Ms. Augustyn’s left is Sammi Thiele, the lone representative from Austin College. Last year, as a Junior, Sammi Thiele made it to her first nationals, swam 100 Back, and finished 23rd. This year, Sammi Thiele reached the A Final in three events, finishing 3rd in 100 Back, 7th in 200 Back, and 4th in 200 IM. All on her own, Ms. Thiele scored 43 points. There were 33 teams at Nationals competing in Women’s events that did not score 43 points.

If you think of what it must be like to be the only athlete from your team at a meet like Nationals…and then to perform at this level. Sammi Thiele doesn’t deserve an award. She deserves to have an award named after her.

200 Breast

Men

Another race that centered around Derek Maas and Jake Meyer, and another nice win for Derek Maas. Although this might have been the moment when Mr. Maas - who was in the pool a heroic 14 times for his team - started to look a little tired. He definitely pulled away from Jake Meyer in the final lap, but he never quite caught up with the time posted by Jason Hamilton the year before, and Andrew Wilson’s 200 Breast record was not in jeopardy.

The complexity of feeling around Derek Maas ought not eclipse a simple fact: nobody at nationals gave more to their team than Derek Maas.

Women

Often in the enormous shadow of Jennah Fadely, Gabby Wei had quietly become one of the most reliable breaststroke threats in the division. At this nationals, she took a backseat to no one, and won this event by more than a second. It also came at a time when Kenyon’s lead was only 22 points, which seemed tenuous now that it was known that Denison had qualified all three divers for the finals.

But when Ms. Wei and Ms. Fadely hit the wall in this event, the mood on the deck for Kenyon clearly changed. It was hard to make out the words from the stands, but as they climbed from the pool Ms. Fadely seemed to be pointing at Ms. Wei and yelling that it was all over. If so, she was right.

3 M Diving

Women

We are reproducing the table in full because we don’t know anything about diving and whatever we say will just sound stupid. Diving is an important part of these meets and deserves better coverage than it gets from us (or from anyone else as far as we can tell - by the way, if you know something about diving and want a platform for Division III diving blog posts, contact us - we will give you the keys).

400 Free Relay

Men

In terms of who won the Men’s National Championship, there was literally nothing at stake in this relay. You know the old refrain that ‘nothing that happens in this relay matters unless you DQ’? Emory could have DQ’d and still won. It was so over at this point. Still, Nick Goudie, Harrison Pire, Caden Bjornstad, and Crow Thorsen swam a solid relay that was more than enough to pad Emory’s lead.

Djordje Dragojlovic was Kenyon’s lead leg and so was matched up against Mr. Goudie. They both went out 43-mid which, regardless of the stakes, just never gets old. It was a crowd pleasing effort at the end of a very exciting Men’s National Championship.

Women

Pomona Pitzer took the opportunity to flex some of their sprinter muscle. Though ______ ________ (let’s see if you can figure it out from the context clues) put NYU out front by going more than a half-second faster than her nearest competitor (and more like two seconds faster than everyone else), the team of Sabrina Wang, Alex Turvey, Katie Gould, and Valerie Mello laid down a very convincing 3:20.59 (for comparison, last year’s winner went 3:21.66).

Kenyon just had to not totally mess-up, which basically meant Denison had to not mess up either, while hoping Kenyon would flat out DQ. Nobody DQ’d. Kenyon’s anchor leg, Junior Sydney Geboy, swam a solid 50.58, more than enough to push Kenyon further ahead of Denison and comfortably into fourth place, where a Women’s National Championship was waiting.

1. A recurring theme is that we don’t actually know the plans of several top swimmers in the division. Mr. Roddy for instance might still have some eligibility left. He’s a more confusing case than usual because he did start college in the 2020-21 season and swam in a couple meets but we don’t know if that counts against his eligibility (we think it does not). Regardless, what he would do with more eligibility (if anything) is unknown to us.

2. The top swim, by SRS, at this year’s nationals was Derek Maas’ record-breaking 200 IM.

3. No. We are not going to link to the post.

4. There are eight Division III Women’s event records (44%) that have not yet been on the books for three years.