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The second round of fall invitationals finished up this weekend with lots of fast times all across Division III. A lot of the top ten teams were in actions at various invitationals across the country as the majority of Division III is done competing for the semester before we head in to finals week.
The top ranked Emory women finished second in the Miami Invitational that featured some pretty good Division III teams in Denison and Wash U. The Eagles were beat only by Division I Miami (OH) in the meet as they had stellar swims from Cindy Cheng in the 200 back (1:56.63), 200 free (1:47.84) and the 500 (4:51.43) as well as Julia Durmer in the 400 IM (4:17.68), the mile (16:36.20) and the 200 IM (2:03.02).
Emory had a strong meet, but the biggest highlight out of the Miami Invite was Denison’s Katie Kustritz who broke the NCAA Record in the 100 breast on Friday night in Oxford. Kustritz swam a 1:00.50 to break the oldest NCAA record in Division III swimming that was a 1:00.54 held by Lindsay Payne of Williams from February 2006. Kustritz was second at NCAA’s last year in the event, even though her time from the Miami Invite would have won the meet. She was second to Sam Senczyszn who has not swum a meet yet this season. Kustritz also swam the 200 breast with a 2:14.33, a little off Senczyszn’s 2:12.20 NCAA record from 2016. Kustritz currently sits second in Division III in the 200 behind Kenyon’s Julia Wilson (2:14.09) from Kenyon’s home invite.
Kustritz also swam a good 200 IM at 2:01.66 to lead Division III in that event. The Big Red women also had strong swims from Gabrielle Nutter in the 50 free (23.51) and Casey Kirby in the 100 back (55.41).
Also at the Miami Invite was Wash U who was highlighted by Niamh O’Grady in the 200 IM (2:02.97) the 100 fly (55.89) and the 200 free (1:51.62). O’Grady was a big part of Wash U’s team effort at the Miami Invite as they finished fifth at the meet.
The MIT invitational also was a big part of the weekend in Division III swimming as host MIT ended up getting beat by the NYU women. MIT’s Kailey Allen had one of the best swims of the meet with her 2:00.66 200 fly. She leads all of Division III in that event with that swim. The NYU women were highlighted by Sydney Catron who won the 200 free (1:51.09) and the 200 back (2:00.89).
The Kenyon women hosted their own Total Performance Invitational with huge swims out of their core group of Hannah Orbach-Mandel, Crile Hart and Julia Wilson. Those three have been some of the best swimmers in Division III so far this season. The versatile Orbach-Mandel swam a 50.14 100 free, a 1:48.43 and a 4:56.13 500 to put herself near the top of the Division III rankings in all three events. The freshman Hart continued her strong debut with a 55.01 100 back and a 2:00.59 200 back.
Wilson was already mentioned earlier here with a strong 200 breast. She also swam a strong 100 breast at 1:01.35 for the second fastest time behind Kustritz this season. The Ladies also had good swims out of Kanchi Desai, who swam an unseen double of a 4:24.59 in the 400 IM and then a 55.61 100 fly, as well as a 2:02.51 200 fly. They weren’t on the same day, but that is not a double that is normally observed in any level of swimming. After this weekend, Kenyon and Emory look to be the teams to beat at Division III NCAA’s this year.
The Denison men ended up winning the Miami Invite ahead of second place Wash U. The Big Red look to be the top team in Division III this year after defeating Kenyon a couple weeks ago in a duel and defeating the defending national champions Emory in the Miami Invite.
The Big Red used its depth to win the invite, especially with good swims out of Bebe Wang in the 200 IM (1:48.87) and the 400 IM (3:55.55). Kenny Fox was also a highlight for the Big Red with his 48.15 100 fly and so was Mitch Williams with his 1:47.91 200 fly.
The Wash U men were second at that meet and had really good swims out of Keith Van Cleave in the 200 IM (1:48.21) and Brandon Lum in the 200 fly (1:47.68). Distance ace Seth Ritter put up times of 4:31.90 in the 500 and 16:00.82 in the mile. Ritter has already been faster in the mile this year, so he should be expected to drop a lot of time when we hit the conference meets and NCAA’s at the end of the year. Peyton Wilson also had a good swim for Wash U with his 1:46.28 200 back.
The defending national champions Emory were also in Oxford for the Miami Invite with strong swims from Tom Gordon and Oliver Smith. Gordon started the meet with a good 4:27.78 500, but came back two days later with a very strong 15:22.93 in the 1650. He leads Division III in the mile as we head in to the second half of the season. Smith is the only swimmer in Division III this season under 20 in the 50 with his 19.60 in Oxford. Smith also leads the nation in the 100 free with his 43.90 to be the only swimmer under 44 seconds as well.
Like we mentioned earlier, MIT and NYU had a good showing at the MIT Invite with Bowde Eskes and Ian Rainey leading the way for each team. Rainey is third in the 200 IM this season (1:48.74) and second in the 400 IM (3:53.79) after his showing at the MIT Invite. Eskes was the national runner up last year in both the 100 and 200 fly and swam a 48.53 and a 1:48.47 this past weekend.
The Kenyon men also had a good showing this weekend at their own invite in Gambier. The Lords were led by Jon Zimdars, Ben Baturka and Mick Bartholomew this past weekend as those two put up nation leading swims in the 200 fly (1:46.43), the 100 back (48.15) and the 400 IM (3:53.36) respectively. The Lords also had swift times from Humphrey Pruett in the 200 breast (2:00.65) and Matthew Leenhouts in the 200 IM (1:48.72) that rank second in Division III.
The Kenyon Lords have been historically the greatest team in Division III swimming, so despite their duel loss to Denison, they should not be counted out when we move to NCAAs in March in Indianapolis.
Other top swims:
- 50 Free: Meg Taylor, Emory (23.32)
- 100 Free: Fiona Muir, Emory (50.14)
- 200 Free: Abigail Wilson, Kenyon (1:48.94)
- 500 Free: Courtney Cowan, Johns Hopkins (4:48.50)
- 1650 Free: Marysol Ace, Kenyon (16:57.57)
- 100 Back: Angela Ling, Pomona Pitzer (55.74)
- 200 Back: Delaney Ambrosen, Kenyon (1:59.96)
- 100 Breast: Kate Mesaros, Denison (1:02.40)
- 200 Breast: Ashley Daniels, Emory (2:18.07)
- 100 Fly: Zoe Whalen, Denison (55.83)
- 200 Fly: Kayla Holman, MIT (2:03.39)
- 200 IM: Gwyneth Lamastra, Johns Hopkins (2:04.78)
- 400 IM: Erica Hsu, Denison (4:25.40)
- 200 Free Relay: Emory, 1:32.59
- 400 Free Relay: Emory, 3:22.68
- 800 Free Relay: Emory, 7:21.08
- 200 Medley Relay: Denison, 1:40.96
- 400 Medley Relay: Denison, 3:43.77
- 50 Free: Ike Eyman Casey, Loras (20.00)
- 100 Free: Brandon Fabian, Johns Hopkins (44.29)
- 200 Free: Fabian, Johns Hopkins (1:37.41)
- 500 Free: Griffin Otazu, Johns Hopkins (4:25.30)
- 1650 Free: Matt Hedman, Denison (15:36.30)
- 100 back: Sage Ono, Emory (48.23)
- 200 back: Carlos Colmenares, NYU (1:47.72)
- 100 Breast: Tiernan Foster-Smith, Denison (55.13)
- 200 breast: Ryan Stevenson, Denison (2:01.24)
- 100 Fly: Mark Wilson, Johns Hopkins (48.26)
- 200 Fly: Cooper Knapp, SUNY New Paltz (1:47.39)
- 200 IM: Wilson, Johns Hopkins (1:49.46)
- 400 IM: Sven Mesihovic, Emory (3:55.59)
- 200 Free Relay: Emory (1:20.03)
- 400 Free Relay: Emory (2:57.52)
- 800 Free Relay: Denison (6:36.48)
- 200 Medley Relay: Denison (1:28.74)
- 400 Medley Relay: Denison (3:15.47)
November 21 recap
November 13 recap
November 6 recap
October 30 recap
October 23 recap
Congrats KT!!!
Nicole Ongie Hedman ?
Way to go KT and Matt!!