Top teams, women's events: A snapshot
Top teams, women's events: A snapshot
This is all we can manage today. We have a lot going on over here. By the way, NYU is going to win it all this season.
We are using an abbreviated table, because we want to make a few quick points. Then say something outrageous. And then go for a long walk.
Same system as with yesterday’s post.1
And the question is the same. How many of last year’s SRS points are these teams losing because of athletes who graduated.
Williams, -19.2 SRS Points
This feels relevant. At Nationals, Williams finished fourth, just behind NYU and slightly ahead of MIT. Their strong performance was due in part to standout swims from Amanda Wager, Emma Schulman, and Samantha Kilcoyne (National Champion, 100 Fly). All three are among those departing.
Denison, -15.8 SRS Points
At the 2024 Nationals, Big Red narrowly lost to the Kenyon Ladies by just 18 points. While Denison is losing some standout swimmers—Esme Wright, Olivia Chow, and Tara Witkowski—they remain in excellent shape, even though they are losing what looks like a lot of SRS points. But this won’t change much about their intra-conference rivalry with Kenyon, because...
Kenyon, -15.6 SRS Points
That’s about the same as Denison. These SRS losses may affect the standing of Denison and Kenyon compared to teams outside their conference, but it doesn’t change anything about the annual Denison/Kenyon battle. Losing Caleigh Wukitch, Sophie Schmitz, and Sydney McCallie explains most of Kenyon’s dip.
Emory, -5.2 SRS Points
Emory dodged a figurative bullet. While they will lose two key contributors—Fiona Arwood and Sloane Donovan—it will only cost them about 5 SRS points. The good news for the Eagles is that Emory offers a range of graduate programs, and Megan Jungers and Penelope Helm still have a fifth year of eligibility. Both are now graduate students at Emory. Had the Eagles lost Ms. Jungers and Ms. Helm, their total SRS losses would have surpassed both Kenyon and Denison.
NYU, -1.0 SRS Points
NYU lost only one point, retaining the core swimmers that propelled them to a third-place finish at Nationals last season.
A bit of history might help here. Women’s swimming and diving started in Division III in 1982. Williams claimed the first two national championships, followed by Kenyon winning the next 17 D3 titles. Yes, the Ladies won every year from 1984 through 2000. In 2001, Denison broke the streak, but Kenyon bounced back, winning three more titles in a row. Then Emory won two championships, Kenyon took three, and Emory went on to claim ten straight titles. That brings us to the Nationals that were canceled due to COVID. Since then, Kenyon has won twice, and Denison once.
Teams that have won a Division III Women’s National Championship:
Kenyon, 25 times
Emory, 12 times
Denison, twice
Williams, twice (and, well, the last time was 1983)
For this reason, we enter every season wondering if this will be the year a fifth team finally breaks through to win a Division III Women’s National Championship.
We think it is going to happen this year. And the team will be NYU.
But we think it will be interesting because of things like this…
We won’t go into detail about MIT and Pomona-Pitzer, except to note that MIT finished fifth at Nationals last season. Losing Edenna Chen is a setback, but they are gaining the most valuable transfer in all of Division III. Alex Turvey, who graduated from Pomona-Pitzer last year, has joined the Harvard/MIT M.D.-Ph.D. program. Ms. Turvey will bring her fifth year of eligibility (and her 11.9 SRS points) to MIT, making an already strong squad… absolutely terrifying.
Data set is all swims in the 2023-24 season. How SRS works can be reviewed here. Team SRS is the total of the SRS points for the best swim in any event by any athlete on that team.