Thanks to Tim Storer for contributing this piece.
If someone had told me in September that the fastest dual meet of the season would be between Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Pomona-Pitzer, I would have said they were crazy. But alas, it seems that two teams ranked 5th and 36th, respectively, at last years NCAAs may have just produced the most competitive dual meet this year. To explore whether that really happened, I’ve created a chart of some other quick D3 dual meets, showing the top times posted in each event swum and the scoring each of those times against the CMS/PP meet. CMS and PP outscored all but one, Chicago/Wash U, but that meet lacked the same depth.
While the CMS Stags ended up besting the PP Sagehens 174:124, both sides put up some especially speedy performances. Some highlights include:
- CMS junior Matt Williams’ 49.82 that ranks him tenth nationally
- PP freshman Teddy Koerner who went career bests in both breaststrokes (57.59 and 2:06.23)
- Alex Poltash (CMS) and Mark Hallman (PP) battling it out for a pair of 1:41.8s in the 200 freestyle, with Poltash clinching the win
- CMS senior Matt Valentine going 1:51.50 in the 200 fly – the fastest dual meet performance this year in that event
- The CMS 200 medley team being the 6th fastest in CMS history (1:32.98), yet actually losing the relay to the Hens for the first time years
- The CMS 400 freestyle relay going 3:04.87 – the fastest D3 relay of the season when only counting dual meets (Kenyon went 3:04.78 in a tri-meet)
As there is no gold standard for “fastest dual meet,” I leave it to the readers to decide, but in any case, this is very new territory for these southern California rivals. Watch out for the Stags and Hens at NCAAs this year.
| CMS v PP | Denison v Kenyon | Chicago v Wash U | Amherst v MIT | Amherst v Williams | |
| 50 free | 21.12 | 20.86 | 20.82 | 21.20 | 21.22 |
| 100 free | 46.11 | 46.72 | 46.12 | 47.28 | 46.24 |
| 200 free | 1:41.80 | 1:41.96 | 1:43.01 | 1:43.31 | 1:43.97 |
| 500 free | 4:44.97 | 4:41.85 | 4:44.25 | 4:38.83 | 4:48.88 |
| 1000 free | 9:52.56 | 9:37.99 | 9:48.10 | n/a | 9:52.82 |
| 1650 free | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| 100 back | 49.82 | 51.88 | 52.21 | 51.03 | 49.21 |
| 200 back | 1:52.31 | 1:53.15 | 1:55.14 | 1:53.82 | 1:54.15 |
| 100 br | 57.59 | 58.52 | 56.90 | 57.85 | n/a |
| 200 br | 2:05.59 | 2:08.09 | 2:08.07 | 2:05.12 | 2:05.50 |
| 100 fly | 50.88 | 50.91 | 49.82 | 50.55 | n/a |
| 200 fly | 1:51.50 | 1:53.80 | 1:51.71 | 1:52.74 | 1:54.70 |
| 200IM | 1:56.99 | n/a | n/a | 1:55.45 | 1:54.71 |
| 400IM | n/a | 4:06.20 | 4:12.51 | n/a | n/a |
| 200 Fr Relay | n/a | 1:23.86 | 1:24.37 | 1:24.73 | n/a |
| 400 Fr Relay | 3:04.87 | n/a | n/a | 3:07.99 | 3:08.30 |
| 200 Medley | 1:32.90 | 1:32.32 | 1:32.55 | 1:33.76 | n/a |
| 400 Medley | n/a | n/a | n/a | 3:26.60 | 3:25.15 |
| CMS/PP score versus: | n/a | 8-4 | 6-6 | 9-4 | 8-3 |
Swimming news courtesy of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Pomona-Pitzer Swimming & Diving.