This and that
A couple quick observations. More tomorrow. We are catching up in the order that meet results are uploaded to SwimCloud. We appreciate your patience.
At the Blue Jay Invite, Kristin Cornish swam a 16:30.88 mile, retaking first place in Division III. A perplexing interlude has ended as mysteriously as it began. We are not sure why this brings us such peace but, as the man said, there is no such thing as a false sense of well being.
Congrats Ms. Cornish on a great swim. Oh, and SwimCloud has it listed as a B Cut. It is an A Cut.
NESCAC (in brief)
The NESCAC Women’s Championship is still going on. We think. Results have not been uploaded, so we can’t do anything systematic right now. But this jumped out at us: Sophia Verkleeren setting a meet and pool record with a 1:59.48 in the 200 IM.
And this, which is a NESCAC, meet, & pool record.
Look at that lineup. Every member of that team is an established rock star, except for First-Year Emma Dimter. And she dropped a sub-51:00 to hold on for the win.
It was the third fastest anchor leg in the event, and the two faster legs were blinding fast swims from Tuft’s Jillian Cudney and Bates’ Grace Wenger who, you might recall, are both Seniors. Ms. Dimter seems right at home.
And then there was this, another NESCAC record.
You’re getting the idea, right? We don’t have to keep going…
When it posts, Samantha Kilcoyne’s 54.16 in the 100 Fly will be the fastest in the division. As will Ms. Verkleeren’s 400 IM (4:17.68). And Ms. Wager’s 200 Back (2:12.61).
This was a fast meet, and Williams romped.
Overview
Since the UAAs and NCACs have uploaded we can get more of an overview. We put together a little report. Just click on the image. All data from UAAs, NCACs or the Blue Jay Invitational. When we get the NJACs and other meets we can just add them in. If you need a refresher on SRS, go here.
What surprised us? Check out Alex McCormick and how well his 200 Back compares to the other insanely fast swims from this weekend.
NCAC
Jennah Fadely and Bengisu Caymaz were rightly recognized for their outstanding performances in multiple events.
(Quick - who holds the Division III record in 100 IM?)
Yet, we all know that this meet is a numbers game. And for either team to prevail they had to keep qualifying swimmers for A Finals, event after event.
And they had to keep their heads.
As we have discussed, this is a meet that is disproportionately influenced by DQs, but Kenyon and Denison (at least after the first day or so) managed to avoid those pitfalls, often by taking a conservative approach to starts and relay exchanges.
There were extraordinary performances throughout.
Jennah Fadely’s 100 Breast was the single most impressive performance of the meet. On the Men’s side, Patrick Daly won the swimmer of the meet recognition in large part on the strength of his fantastic 200 IM - he finished 2.3 seconds ahead of Kenyon’s Ethan Manske and Noah Hargrove. We also think there is a strong argument that Djordje Dragojlovich’s 100 Free was the most impressive swim of the meet.1 Words fail us. There’s no way to accurately describe the combined effect of his height, wingspan, and power. We’ll try to find some video. You have to watch this guy swim.
You can go down the list and pick-out your favorites. We, for example, could not be more impressed with Molly Haag. In her second year at Kenyon, she has developed an element of showmanship and her confidence is contagious. Plus, her ability to ramp-up her intensity in big moments has become one of the more reliable things about this Kenyon team.
Other huge Kenyon contributors include Kenyon Senior Sydney McCallie, swimming what was basically the 400 IM of her life (so far).
Sophie Schmitz also earned mention here. Her 200 Fly (2:02.60) was second to only Emily Harris2 and ahead of Denison’s dangerous Emma Pritchett (and Wooster’s Ollie Bream, who is fantastic and right on the bubble of a nationals invite).
Lisa Torrecillas-Jouault somehow managed to win 100 Free and 100 Back. Her First-Year campaign suggested promise, but it is worth remembering that French swimmers tend to be about a year younger than their American counterparts when they arrive for college in the U.S. Ms. Torrecillas-Jouault is, quietly, one of the most dangerous swimmers on this Kenyon team. And is likely to be so for several years to come.
At different times in the meet, both Yurii Kosian and Marko Krtinic experienced severe cramping and had to be helped from the pool.3
Just saying, if you weren’t there, it would be hard to get the amount of human drama at this meet.
A note on Mr. Kosian. He is winding down his Senior year. And as good as Yurii Kosian has been, he is probably a little under-rated. In 2021-22, Mr. Kosian was one of the first athletes to claim an A Cut, and he did so in his signature event, 200 Back.4 If you were at Nationals in 2022, what happened there was unforgettable. Yurii Kosian broke the Division III record in 200 Back. But so did Tanner Filion, and Mr. Filion did so by touching the wall 1.41 seconds before Mr. Kosian.5 Except for Nationals last season,6 there has not been a time when Mr. Kosian was not a presumptive favorite in any 100 or 200 Back event he swam. And the whole time he has been a deceptively strong 200 freestyle competitor, usually tucked inside an 800 Free Relay, where his extraordinary contributions are less noticeable. Next year, Mr. Kosian will be gone and Division III swimming will be diminished in his absence.
Speaking of reliable athletes, Taryn Wisner swam one of the fastest miles in the division, which is what she does every year at this meet. Also worth remembering that Ms. Wisner was national champion in the 500 Free at 2022 Nationals, and won the Silver medal in the 500 Free in 2023. Her 4:55-low this weekend was excellent, but that is not her best. She is a dangerous distance swimmer with the demonstrated ability to unleash a sub-4:50.
Tara Witkowski and Elijah Venos were standout contributors along with Emily Harris, Quinn Brown, Maja Palmroos, and now Riley Tofflemire. This is a remarkable team built on nationals-quality athletes that other teams seem to miss, and who tend to have a linear progression throughout their time swimming for Big Red. Something remarkable is (once again) happening at Denison, and we hope - some day soon - to understand it better.
We know our lane. We don’t understand diving and anything we say about it will be presumptuous/stupid. We are OK at math, though, and without the divers, the Kenyon ladies would not have won this meet. The Kenyon ladies prevailed with a 71 point margin of victory. Of the 2039.5 points scored by the Kenyon ladies, 126 came from the divers. You can play this game all night - Kenyon would not have won without the breaststrokers, or if a a couple relays DQ’d - but that’s just another way of saying that the divers were an essential part of this team, and this was a team win.
And you could make a case for his opening leg of the 800 Free Relay, where he went 1:37.72, the fourth fastest 200 Free in the division this year (Mr. Dragojlovich owns two of those four fastest times).
Emily Harris owned the Division III 200 Fly lead coming into this week.
With Mr. Krtinic the problem was evident in the first 75 yards of the 200 Fly. Given how close the points totals had been for the previous three days, we assume he was unwilling to stop mid-event and just take the DQ. He finished the event but was then unable to surmount the low-lip of the pool. His teammates dragged him from the water, and spectators watched as he appeared to be writhing in pain while those attending helped him manage the cramps and rehydrate.
Liam McDonnell of James Carroll University actually got the A Cut in 100 Fly earlier in the same meet - Total Performance Invitational, November 2021. Mr. McDonnell has since gone on to swim at Notre Dame - a P5 Division I program - along with Tanner Filion.
Mr. Filion went on to become one of the most important athletes in the history of Division III swimming. If that feels like an overstatement to you, we suggest you read this and consider the fate of an athlete like Mr. Filion at any other level of collegiate swimming.
Where Mr. Kosian’s health seemed a bit iffy.