The NCAA Division II Championships are off to an utterly chaotic start, after Wednesday’s finals session was postponed due to inclement weather.
As such, Wednesday’s finals were contested Thursday morning. Thursday’s prelims were cancelled in lieu of timed finals Thursday night.
With the weather postponement today, here is the adjusted #NCAAD2 Men’s & Women’s Swimming & Diving schedule for Thursday. #MakeItYours pic.twitter.com/sECD9rUbmf
— NCAA Division II (@NCAADII) March 17, 2021
Anyway, here’s what happened in the races:
- Psych Sheets
- Live Results
- Live Stream
- NCAA Division II Championships , Day 1: Prelims a Go, but Finals Postponed by Tornado Threat
Women’s 200 medley relay
Queens held on to its top spot, hitting the exact seed time of 1:40.13 to get the win by eight tenths over Drury. The squad of Rachel Massaro, Danielle Melilli, Kayla Tennant and Natalie van Noy claimed gold. Third was Wingate in 1:41.10.
Men’s 200 medley relay
Drury turned in a meet and Division II record swim in the 200 medley, going 1:24.69 to undercut by .14 seconds the record set by Queens in 2018. Nathan Bighetti, Dawid Nowodworski, Dominick Karacic and Alex Bowen were the record-setting team, Bowen going 18.69 off the end. Second was Indy in 1:25.03, also under the meet record, as was third-place McKendree in 1:25.67.
Women’s 1,000 free
In the timed final heat, Allison Weber of Drury clocked in at 9:53.12 to claim gold, trimming more than four seconds off her seed time. Queens’ Sophie Lange, who dropped more than eight seconds, was the only other one to crack 10 minutes and grab second in 9:55.89. Francesca Baines of Queens was third.
Men’s 1,000 free
Fabio Dalu of McKendree blasted his way to a Division II and championships record, dropping nearly three seconds to go 8:54.10. It downs the meet mark set in 2009 by Drury’s Mitch Snyder and the Division II record set just in 2019 by Alex Kunert.
Second was Zach Ondrej, with Jonas Soerensen of Wingate third.
Women’s 200 IM
Marizel van Jaarsveld dropped a second and a half from her prelims swim to earn the gold medal with a time of 1:57.84 for Indy. She and teammate Katie McCoy, who was fourth in prelims, made it a 1-2 sweep, McCoy going 1:59.31. The top seed entering finals, Queens’ Lexie Baker, and top seed entering the meet, Drury’s Bec Cross, finishing third and fourth respectively.
Men’s 200 IM
Emanuel Fava worked the front half of his race and built a big enough to hold off top seed Alex Kunert. The Delta State junior dropped nearly a second and a half from prelims to go 1:43.92 and get the win. Kunert trailed the whole way, but a 24.87 free split closed the game to just .24 seconds at the final wall. Lindenwood’s Matheo Mateos-Mongelo was third in 1:46.16.
Women’s 50 free
Danielle Melilli made it two golds in one session with a time of 22.57. Indy’s Johanna Buys was second in 22.84 with Drury’s Katarzyna Rogowska third in 22.90.
Men’s 50 free
Karol Ostrowski owns the Division II meet record in the 50, going 19.12 seconds to get the gold. It’s just .04 short of his Division II record. It downs the 19.18 set by Lindenwood’s Serghei Golban in 2016.
Alex Bowen made it a Drury 1-2 with his 19.40. Third as Matej Dusa of Queens in 19.42.
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