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November is officially here for the 2017-2018 season and Division III is heating up toward the November invites. A couple of the east coast teams have made an appearance finally after being quiet all fall. (#7/5) NYU swam its first meet since October 14 and its second of the season as they defeated Stevens Institute of Technology at home. (#4/6) MIT also made its first appearance of the season in a real meet after they hosted their alumni meet October 21. MIT beat Springfield College on the road on Saturday.
The NYU men had star senior Ian Rainey leading the way as the former Michigan swimmer won the 400 IM (3:57.38), 200 IM (1:52.61) and the 200 fly (1:51.31). Rainey leads all of Division III in the IM events as he is second in the country in the 200 fly. NYU also had good swims from Timothy Kou in the 100 breast (56.30) as he now leads Division III in that event. Kou also swam a 2:05.13 in the 200 to sit at number two in Division III.
The NYU women were headlined by Honroe Collins in the 200 IM (2:07.26) and the 400 IM (4:35.81). That is Collins’ best time in the 400 IM and she could move out of the 100 breast in favor of the 4IM as she sits seventh in Division III right now. Collins and freshman Sydney Catron put up good times on the weekend as Catron won the 200 free (1:55.74), 500 free (5:09.06) and the 200 back (2:06.80).
MIT also made their season debut as they defeated Springfield College by an overwhelming margin on both sides. Kailey Allen was the high performer of the day with her 2:07.04 200 fly performance. Another team out east that has performed well this season has been Johns Hopkins.
The Blue Jays have had stellar performances so far this fall from Brandon Fabian and Anna Wisniewski. Fabian won the 500 at the Thomas Murphy Invite with a 4:35.08 to lead Division III. Wisniewski and Courtney Cowan also had good weekends as Wisniewski won the 200 IM (2:06.49) and Cowan won the 500 (4:56.97) to lead Division III in both events. The Blue Jays have also had good swims out of Austin Wilson who swam a 1:55.95 200 IM.
Moving to the midwest, rivals (#7/9) Chicago and (#6/7) Wash U locked horns in St. Louis as the Chicago women and Wash U came out on top. Wash U’s Seth Ritter has been on a roll so far this fall and he kept that momentum going with wins in the 1650 (15:55.71), 1000 (9:38.05) and the 500 (4:39.53) for a very tiring hat trick. Also making some noise this past weekend was Wash U’s Brandon Lum who swam a 1:50.28 in the 200 fly. The defending champion in that event put himself at number one in Division III in that event.
Chicago’s Alexander Qu and Wash U’s Simon Deshusses had a good battle in the 200 breast with Qu beating him with a 2:08.45 to Deshusses’ 2:08.50. They sit fifth and sixth in Division III. Ironically, the two teams had another close battle in the 100, but it was with two different swimmers. Wash U’s Kevin Van Cleave (56.74) out-dueled Chicago’s Reona Yamaguchi (56.91) in the 100 breast. Van Cleave also had a fast 200 back with a 1:52.71.
Chicago’s Nadia Redza had a good swim in her 400 IM (4:32.26) to put her second in the national rankings in that event.
Other highlights from the weekend came from Calvin’s Abby VanHarn in the 50 (23.99), Emory’s Fiona Muir in the 100 free (52.45), and Denison’s Casey Kirby in the 100 (56.86) and 200 back (2:04.13).
Other highlights from the men came from Swarthmore’s Jeffrey Tse and Franklin and Marshall’s Eric Dietrich-Peterson in the 100 fly (50.68, 51.04), Carthage’s Sam Gabriel in the 200 back (1:52.84), Emory’s Sage Ono in the 100 back (50.76), Trey Kolleck in the 100 free (45.86), Oliver Smith in the 50 (20.38) and Tom Gordon in the 500 (4:35.96).
Last week’s recap
Last fortnight’s recap
Good heavens :/
Where’s the coverage of the USCGA??