2025 NCAA DII Championship Preview: Nova Southeastern Women, Tampa Men Aim To Defend Titles

2025 NCAA Division II Swimming & Diving Championship

• March 11-15, 2025
• IU Natatorium — Indianapolis, IN 
• SCY (25 Yards) 
• Defending Champions: 
  • Women: Nova Southeastern (2x)
  • Men: University of Tampa (1x)
• Women’s Psych Sheets
• Men’s Psych Sheets
• Live Results 
• Live Stream

The 2025 NCAA Division II Championships kick off tomorrow at the IU Natatorium in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Nova Southeastern women aim for their third-straight team title, while the Tampa men look to defend their first team title in program history. 

This is projected to be a close team race; the scored-out psych sheet—which doesn’t include diving—has the Drury women edging out Nova Southeastern by 4.5 points. Drury is projected to win the men’s team standings too, with the psych sheets giving them a 26.5 margin over Tampa.

Schedule 

Tuesday, March 11 

• 800 freestyle relay 

Wednesday, March 12 

• 1000 freestyle
• 200 IM 
• 50 freestyle 
• Women’s 1-meter diving
• 200 medley relay 

Thursday, March 13 

• 100 butterfly
• 400 IM 
• 200 freestyle 
• Men’s 3-meter diving 
• 400 medley relay 

Friday, March 14 

• 500 freestyle
• 100 backstroke 
• 100 breaststroke 
• 200 butterfly
• Women’s 3-meter diving
• 200 freestyle relay 

Saturday, March 15 

• 1650 freestyle
• 100 freestyle 
• 200 backstroke 
• 200 breaststroke 
• Men’s 1-meter diving
• 400 freestyle relay 

If you’re used to watching Division I swimming, you probably noticed a couple of differences in the Division II schedule. Namely, the 1000 freestyle is an NCAA Championship event and there’s no platform diving. Another major difference that isn’t as obvious from the  First, the 1000 freestyle is an NCAA Championship event

It’s been a busy regular season for Division II, as Kirabo Namutebi, Agata Naskret, Jonette Laegreid, Luna Mertins, Jacob Hamlin, and Cedric Buessing, and Drury’s 400 medley relay quartet of Ivan Adamchuk, Davi Mourao, Alejandro Villarejo, and Lucas Mineur have all broken at least one Division II record this season. 

NCAA Division II Records Broken This Season: 

• Women’s 50 freestyle: Kirabo Namutebi, UIndy — 22.03
• Women’s 100 backstroke: Agata Naskret, Colorado Mesa — 51.86
• Women’s 200 backstroke: Agata Naskret, Colorado Mesa — 1:53.97
• Women’s 200 breaststroke: Jonette Laegreid, Drury — 2:08.86
• Women’s 100 butterfly: Luna Mertins, Lynn — 51.85
• Men’s 500 freestyle: Jacob Hamlin, Tampa — 4:16.84
• Men’s 500 freestyle: Cedric Buessing, UIndy — 4:16.15
• Men’s 1000 freestyle: Jacob Hamlin, Tampa — 8:53.99
• Men’s 1650 freestyle: Jacob Hamlin, Tampa — 14:55.02
• Men’s 400 medley relay: Drury (Adamchuk, Mourao, Villarejo, Mineur) — 3:06.83 

Races To Watch

The men’s 500 freestyle NCAA record has been broken twice this season. First, Hamlin swam a 4:16.84 at midseason. Then, Buessing, an Olympic finalist in the 400 IM, swam 4:16.15 at his conference meet, lowering Hamlin’s mark by .69 seconds. That sets up for an explosive race between them on the fourth night of the championships. 

Last season, the top six in the men’s 100 backstroke were separated by four-tenths. Though gold medalist Ben Sampson and bronze medalist Lamar Taylor are using up their eligibility in Division I this season, it should still be a close race again. The top four swimmers, Adamchuk, Andrew Scoggin, Alvaro Zornoza Quiros, and Patryk Rozenek are seeded within .27 seconds of each other. 

It’s a similar story in the men’s 100 butterfly. Villarejo, the returning fourth-place finisher, is the top seed in 46.41, three-hundredths ahead of Montevallo’s Aleksei Kolesnikov (46.44). Other swimmers seeded with a 46-mid include 200 fly Division II record-holder Jackson Lustig (46.56), Tampa’s Tibor Tistan (46.62), and UIndy’s Oskar Sawicki (46.65). 

Switching gears, Namutebi leads the women’s 50 freestyle field after swimming her Division II record 22.03 in the fall. Augustana junior Bryn Greenwaldt approached that mark later with a 22.09. With only six-hundredths separating the two, this should be a great two-athlete race with a potential NCAA record on the line. Notably, Greenwaldt is competing at the swimming and track & field national championships simultaneously this week. 

Emily Trieschmann dominated the distance freestyle events for Nova Southeastern during the last couple of NCAA championships. Trieschmann has graduated, and there looks to be a tight race brewing between last season’s runner-up Tori Meklensek, and junior Lucy Hedley. Simon Fraser’s Meklensek holds the top seed with a 4:47.08 with Hedley sitting second in 4:47.39. Colorado Mesa’s Olivia Hansson finished fifth last year and with a 4:48.35 seed, could join the fight for gold. 

Top Seeds in Each Event 

Below is a table of the top seeds in each event. Two Drury women hold the top seed in two individual events, as Laegreid leads the 100/200 breaststroke (59.69/2:08.86) and Mellie Wijk ranks first in the 200 IM (1:58.00) and 200 fly (1:53.97). Wijk is also part of Drury’s hold on the women’s 200 breaststroke, as the program owns the top three seeds in the event. This is another hotly anticipated race as the defending champion Celina Schmidt returns to face Laegreid, the new NCAA record holder. 

Naskret, a Division II record holder, owns the top seed in the backstroke events (51.86/1:53.97) and Lynn’s Mertins, a three-time ‘A’ finalist in 2024, is the top seed in the 100 fly (51.85) and 100 free (48.33). 3x Great Lakes Valley champion Andrea Gomez Espinosa is the top seed in the 1000 free (9:49.28), 400 IM (4:13.31), and 1650 freestyle (16:24.18) with her winning times from last month’s conference championships. 

Three swimmers on the men’s side own more than one individual top seed, all of whom have set an NCAA Division II record this season. Buessing ranks first in the 400 IM (3:41.07) and 500 freestyle (4:16.65) while Hamlin holds down the 1000 and 1650 freestyle (8:53.99/14:55.02) with his record-setting swims. Drury’s Adamchuk sits atop the psych sheet in the 200 IM (1:43.13) and 100 backstroke (46.19).