2020 NCAA Division II Men’s Championships – Day 1 Prelims Live Recap

2020 NCAA Division II Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships

• Wednesday, March 11 – Saturday, March 14, 2020
• SPIRE Institute Aquatics Center – Geneva, OH
• Prelims 10 AM / Finals 6 PM (U.S. Eastern Time)
• Defending Champions: Queens (5x) (results)
• Digital Program
• Psych Sheet
• Live Results
• Live Video
• Championship Central

Day One

Men’s 200 Yard Individual Medley – Prelims

• NCAA DII Record: 1:41.61  3/14/2018   Marius Kusch, Queens (NC)
• Meet Record: 1:41.61  3/14/2018   Marius Kusch, Queens (NC)
• Pool Record: 1:43.96  3/12/2014   Matthew Josa, Queens (NC)

Finals Qualifiers:

1. Alexander Kunert, Queens 1:46.10
2. Caleb Howell, Carson-Newman 1:46.14
3. Harry Shalamon, GVSU 1:46.38
4. Emanuel Fava, Delta State 1:46.73
5. Samuel Brettmann, Nova S’eastern 1:46.74
6. Collyn Gagne, Simon Fraser 1:46.81
7. Jan Delkeskamp, Queens 1:46.93
8. Aleksei Averchenko, Nova S’eastern 1:47.27
9. Andrew Rodriguez, Drury 1:47.77
10. Brett Saunders, Tampa 1:48.12
11. Joao Ribeiro, Wayne State 1:48.13
12. Matey Rezashki, Delta State 1:48.27
13. Markus Furst, Wingate 1:48.33
14. Pavel Semochkin, Drury 1:48.40
15. Thomas Huffman, Missouri S&T 1:48.65
16. Zach Reuter, UCSD 1:48.77

The first heat winner of the day was Drury’s Nathan Bighetti who dropped 1.8 seconds to secure the heat 1 victory with 1:48.81. His teammate Pavel Semochkin followed in the next heat with a 1.9-second drop from his entry time to win with 1:48.40.

Alexander Kunert of Queens won a tight contest in the first circle-seeded heat, going 1:46.10 to beat Carson-Newman’s Caleb Howell by .04. Kunert was out first by more than a second, turning at 22.72 on the fly-to-back wall. Howell roared back with a 25.5 backstroke leg, putting half a body length between him and Kunert heading into breaststroke. He increased his lead to 1.5 seconds over the next 50 yards, outsplitting Kunert 30.2 to 31.2 on the breast. Kunert came home in 24.95, though, just getting his hand to the wall first. It was a 1.3 second improvement from his seed time and earned Kunert the right to swim in lane 4 in tonight’s final. Wingate’s Markus Furst was third in the heat with 1:48.33.

Harry Shalamon of Grand Valley State won the penultimate heat in another close battle, this time among four contenders: Shalamon (1:46.38), Emanuel Fava of Delta State (1:46.73), Simon Fraser’s Collyn Gagne (1:46.81), and Jan Delkeskamp of Queens (1:46.93). Shalamon was first out of the gates with 22.58 on the fly, but Fava took over the lead with a backstroke leg of 26.0, heading to attack the breast with 49.18 on the board. Delkeskamp outsplit the field by about a second over the next 50 yards. Shalamon moved back to first place but Delkeskamp was only half a body length back. Gagne had the fastest freestyle (24.96), followed by Fava (25.52). In the end, Gagne passed Delkeskamp but couldn’t pass Fava, and Shalamon was far enough ahead that neither could catch him.

Nova S’eastern’s Samuel Brettmann won the next heat with strong fly and breast legs. He led after the first 50 with 22.89 but fell to third place behind top-seeded Brett Saunders of Tampa and Andrew Rodriguez of Drury after the backstroke. Brettmann then threw down a 29.67 on the breaststroke to go up by a body length. He came home in 26.3 and won in 1:46.67. Rodriguez was second with 1:47.77. Saunders took third in the heat with 1:48.12, getting his hand to the wall a mere .01 ahead of Wayne State’s Joao Ribeiro (1:48.13).

Men’s 50 Yard Freestyle – Prelims

• NCAA DII Record: 19.17  11/30/2017  David Lambert, Oklahoma Baptist
• Meet Record: 19.18  3/10/2016   Serghei Golban, Lindenwood
• Pool Record: 19.73  3/12/2014   Oscar Pereiro, U of Bridgeport

Finals Qualifiers:

1. Spencer Daily, UCSD 19.66
2. Gregg Lichinsky, McKendree 19.75
3. Guillaume Bolivard, Lewis 19.85
4. Giulio Brugnoni, Delta State 19.86
5. (tie) Tyler James, UCSD 19.92 / Dmitry Belolipetskiy, Fresno Pacific 19.92
6. –
7. (tie) Dmytro Sydorchenko, Queens 19.95 / Alexander Skinner, McKendree 19.95
8. –
9. Abraham Townley, St Cloud 20.00
10. Victor Antonon Rodriguez, UIndy 20.01
11. (tie) Igor Bretas Dantas, EC 20.04 / Skyler Cook-Weeks, Queens 20.04
12. –
13. Andrei Ungur, Carson-Newman 20.07
14. Roberts Zemturis, Carson-Newman 20.09
15. Aidan Glynn, Drury 20.11
16. Iskender Baslakov, Fresnno Pacific 20.13

Finn Howard of Queens dropped .11 to win heat 1 with 20.64. Findlay’s Timothy Stollings followed with a 20.20 in heat 2, besting his entry time by .40 and edging Ruben Van Leeuwen of Lewis (20.56). Zachary Linder of Lindenwood went 20.23 (-.12) to win heat 3 over Wayne State’s Franz Mueller (20.38) and Northern Michigan’s Lajos Budai (20.40).

UC San Diego’s Spencer Daily, last year’s consolation final winner, broke the pool record in the first circle seeded heat going 19.66. That was a lifetime best by .19 for the sophomore. Coming to the wall in quick succession behind him were his teammate Tyler James (19.92) and Queens’s Dmytro Sydorchenko (19.95).

The next heat produced a photo finish among McKendree’s Gregg Lichinsky (19.75), Guillaume Bolivard of Lewis (19.85, -.05), Delta State’s Giulio Brugnoni (19.86, -.12), and Fresno Pacific’s Dmitry Belolipetskiy (19.92, -.10).

Alexander Skinner of McKendree earned the final heat win from out in lane 2, going 19.95 to take .06 off his seed time. Igor Bretas Dantas of Emmanuel was second in the heat with 20.04, just in front of Carson-Newman’s Roberts Zemtruis (20.09).

Men’s 200 Yard Medley Relay – Prelims

• NCAA DII Record: 1:24.83  3/14/2018   Queens (NC) (Pijulet, Arakelian, Kusch, Sydorchenko)
• Meet Record: 1:24.83  3/14/2018   Queens (NC) (Pijulet, Arakelian, Kusch, Sydorchenko)
• Pool Record: 1:26.02  3/12/2014   Wayne State (J Molina Perez, P Jachowicz, S Holm, T Barthel)

Finals Qualifiers:

1. McKendree 1:26.84
2. Fresno Pacific 1:26.85
3. Indy 1:27.28
4. Emmanuel 1:27.29
5. Delta State 1:27.39
6. Nova S’eastern 1:27.65
7. Drury 1:27.85
8. Queens 1:27.93
9. Grand Valley 1:28.05
10. Missouri S & T 1:28.09
11. Carson-Newman 1:28.47
12. Colorado Mesa 1:28.74
13. Wingate 1:28.78
14. Lindenwood 1:28.96
15. Wayne State 1:29.01
16. Findlay 1:29.66

Fresno Pacific won heat 1 of the medley relays with 1:26.85, a drop of 1.97 seconds from their entry time. Iskender Baslakov (21.54), Dmitry Belolipetskiy (23.97), Kirill Baron (21.11), and Aleksandr Ivakin (20.23) made up the Sunbirds relay. UIndy (Jeron Thompson, Jan Zuchowicz, Kael Yorke, Ante Lucev) clocked a 1:27.28 for second place, beating Delta State (Emmanuel Fava, Danyyil Gayuk, Giulio Brugnoni, Tucker Schroer) by .11.

UCSD seeming won the following heat, but in a big blow to their quest for a top-5 team finish, the UC San Diego relay was disqualified for an early start. That left Nova S’eastern’s Ross Hemminghyth (22.30), Samuel Brettmann (24.52), Magnus Poulsen (21.05), and Alec Dawson (19.78) with the top time of the heat, 1:27.65 (-.34). Carson Newman (Andrei Ungur, Raphael de Paiva, Ivo Kunzle, Chad Andoljsek) went 1:28.47 (-.33) for second. Wingate (Markus Furst, Giacomo Viazzo, Iran Almeida, Viacheslav Ohnov) rounded out the heat’s top 3 with 1:28.78.

McKendree torched the final heat with 1:26.84 from DaVante Carey (21.84), John Heaphy (24.27), Gregg Lichinsky (21.22), and Alexander Skinner (19.51). Emmanuel (Thiago Rosa, Joao Santos, Igor Bretas Dantas, Alex Sobers) went 1:27.29 (-.60) for second ahead of Queens (Finn Howard, Jan Delkeskamp, Ruben Stam, Dmytro Sydorchenko).

Men’s 1000 Yard Freestyle – Slower Heats

• NCAA DII Record: 8:56.76  3/13/2019   Alex Kunert, Queens (NC)
• Meet Record: 8:56.76  3/13/2019   Alex Kunert, Queens (NC)
• Pool Record: 9:07.00  3/12/2014   Victor Polyakov, West Chester-MA

Top 8 from morning heats:

1. Cody Liske, Indy 9:09.00
2. Hayden Johnson, UCSD 9:09.26
3. Lucas Lima, Drury 9:10.34
4. Alexander Graham, Missouri S&T 9:10.44
5. Ondrej Zach, NMU 9:10.62
6. Jan Hanzal, Lindenwood 9:10.84
7. Christian Hedeen, Indy 9:12.61
8. Angel Regalado Santiago, Lindenwood 9:13.50