2024 NCAA Division III Championships: Day 2 Prelims Live Recap

2024 NCAA DIII Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships

• March 20-23, 2024
• Location: Greensboro Aquatic Center, Greensboro, NC
• Times: Prelims 10:00 AM / Finals 6:00 PM (ET)
• Defending Champs: Denison women (1x) & Emory men (2x)
• Results Page
• Psych Sheet
• Live Streaming on NCAA.com
• Live Results
• Recaps
  • Day 1 Prelims | Day 1 Finals

This morning in Greensboro features the 200 freestyle relay, 400 IM, 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle, 400 medley relay, and women’s 1-meter diving.

Men’s 200 Yard Freestyle Relay – Prelims

• Division III Record: 1:18.06, Kenyon (D. Somers, Z. Turk, I. Richardson, C. Ramsey), 2012
• 2023 Champion: 1:18.40, Kenyon (D. Dragojlovic, M. Niehoff, C. De Silva, D. Brooks)

Top 8:

1. Emory (Yin, Goudie, Meyer, Bjornstad) – 1:19.71
2. NYU (Watanakun, Wehbe, Ralston, Maas) – 1:19.88
3. MIT (Obochi, Luo, Jiang, Roberts) – 1:19.95
4. Chicago (Tang, Starbuck, Benderskii, Vernhes) – 1:20.08
5. CMU (Tarczynski, Morford, Lloyd, Deshpande) – 1:20.21
6. Kenyon (Dobric, Brooks, Krtinic, Dragojlovic) – 1:20.30
7. Calvin (Bajwa, Peterson, Platt, Campbell) – 1:20.61
8. Williams (Nichol, Heritage, Randall, Schalet) – 1:21.09

Last night’s 50 freestyle champion Tobe Obochi got things rolling for the Engineers with a 19.76. His teammates Jaden Luo, Eugene Jiang, and Bryce Roberts took over, holding off the rest of the first heat including a fast charging Chicago anchor to take the win (1:19.95).

Carnegie Mellon got the better of defending champions Kenyon in the second heat by just nine-hundredths (1:20.21). Calvin, Kenyon, and CMU all looked even off the last wall as Corey Campbell, Djordje Dragojlovic, and Arnav Deshpande all tried to bring it home for their team. It was Deshpande at the touch, who despite not qualifying for the individual event dropped a 19.61 50 free split.

There was one disqualification in the second heat: Washington and Lee swimming in lane one.

Emory claimed the final heat win and the top qualifying time (1:19.71) with Dylan Yin (20.43), followed by a trio of 19-point splits from Nicholas Goudie (19.64), Jake Meyer (19.81), and Caden Bjornstad (19.83). They weren’t without a challenge, however, as NYU used Apicha Watanakun (20.40), Gregory Wehbe (19.87), Emmett Ralston (20.51), and Derek Maas (19.10) to qualify second.

Top seed Williams just got a bit lost in the wash between Emory and NYU and will swim in lane 8 tonight.

Emory was the only team to drop from their seed time this morning. For the second year in a row, Denison failed to advance to finals in this relay.

Women’s 200 Yard Freestyle Relay – Prelims

• Division III Record: 1:30.39, Kenyon (A. White, S. Geboy, C. Hart, E. Mirus), 2022
• 2023 Champion: 1:31.62, Emory (C. Maki, S. Kass, P. Celtnieks, T. Leone)

Top 8:

1. Pomona-Pitzer (Wang, Turvey, Coppo, Mello) – 1:32.25
2. Denison (Kadlecik, Palmroos, Ferguson, Croonquist) – 1:32.90
3. Williams (Dimter, Vujovic, Yang, Kilcoyne) – 1:33.19
4. Swarthmore (Collins, Tambling, Rotival, Anthony) – 1:33.30
5. MIT (Simons, Naveen, Wen, Roberson) – 1:33.46
6. NYU (McIntyre, Xayaveth, Le Fauve, Oldham) – 1:33.59
7. Emory (Sanderson, Jungers, Huang, Celtnieks) – 1:33.62
8. Case Western (Kozma, Dixon, Vann, Chambers) – 1:33.86

Newly-minted 50 freestyle record holder Kaley McIntyre swam 22.90 to grab NYU an early lead in the first circle-seeded heat, but it was MIT’s squad of Kailey Simons (24.20), Annika Naveen (23.38), Melody Wen (23.37), and Ella Roberson (22.51) who grabbed the win (1:33.46). McIntyre’s split held as the fastest flat-start of the field, while Roberson’s anchor leads all flying starts.

In the second circle-seeded heat, Denison faced a strong challenge from Williams, but managed to hold on for the heat win (1:32.90). Both teams dropped from their entry times to secure 2nd and 3rd place heading into tonight’s final. Grace Kadlecik (23.09), Maja Palmroos (23.21), Phoebe Ferguson (23.32), and Amber Croonquist (23.28) swam a consistent race for the Big Red.

In the final heat, Pomona-Pitzer’s team of Sabrina Wang (23.66), Alex Turvey (22.71), Francesca Coppo (23.15), and Valerie Mello (22.73) defended their top seed (1:32.25) They didn’t face much of a challenge, but Case Western’s quartet shaved 0.19-seconds off their seed time to place 3rd in the heat and nab the last A-final spot.

Defending champions Emory took 2nd in the final heat and will have an outside lane for tonight’s final.

Men’s 400 Yard IM – Prelims

• Division III Record: 3:46.62, Harrison Curley (Kenyon), 2015
• 2023 Champion: 3:49.58, Bryan Fitzgerald (Kenyon)

Top 8:

1. Ryan Higgins (TCNJ) – 3:52.42
2. Sean Lyman (Coast Guard) – 3:52.57
3. Benjamin Thorsen (Emory) – 3:53.08
4. Peter Meng (Case Western) – 3:53.35
5. Ethan Manske (Kenyon) – 3:53.69
6. Daniel Sibley (WashU) – 3:54.20
7. Victor Derani (NYU) – 3:54.45
8. Noah Hargrove (Kenyon) – 3:54.51

It took at least a season best for most athletes to qualify for the A-final tonight. Only top qualifier Ryan Higgins (3:52.42) and 3rd qualifier Benjamin Thorsen (3:53.08) added from their seed times. This will be Higgins first career championship final appearance after placing 10th in this event last year. Thorsen was 3rd last year.

In between them, Coast Guard’s Sean Lyman lowered his best time by about 1.5-seconds to qualify 2nd. He’s shown an impressive trajectory this season, as his previous best was set en route to the NEWMAC title in February.

2023 runner-up Daniel Sibley sits in 6th. He was 3:51.20 last year, exactly three seconds faster than he was this morning, so he will look to drop tonight. Ethan Manske is another returning finalist. His time this morning was a personal best and a slight improvement over his NCAC title performance in February.

Victor Derani is the lone freshman in this field. He’s already dropped four seconds in his first collegiate season.

Women’s 400 Yard IM – Prelims

• Division III Record: 4:13.14, Caroline Wilson (Williams), 2012
• 2023 Champion: 4:15.73, Augusta Lewis (CMS)

Top 8:

1. Neely Burns (Trinity U.) – 4:21.51
2. Jordan Herrera (Kenyon) – 4:22.39
3. Quinn Weygandt (Swarthmore) – 4:22.45
4. Calista Lynch (NYU) – 4:22.97
5. Esme Wright (Denison) – 4:23.04
6. Tara Witkowski (Denison) – 4:23.67
7. Sydney McCallie (Kenyon) – 4:24.36
8. Gabriella Wei (Kenyon) – 4:24.40

2023 runner-up Neely Burns looks poised to take home her first national championship. She qualified 1st this morning with a time three seconds slower than her personal best, set in the A-final last year. She won’t be without a challenge, however, as Kenyon junior Jordan Herrera hit a new best time to move up from 11th seed into 2nd heading into finals.

Tara Witkowski (4:23.67), Esme Wright (4:23.04), and Gabby Wei (4:24.40) all return from last year’s A-final. Wei dropped four seconds from her season best to grab lane 8, and round out three A-finalists for Kenyon in this event.

Men’s 100 Yard Butterfly – Prelims

• Division III Record: 46.46, David Fitch (Kenyon), 2021
• 2023 Champion: 46.51, Marko Krtinic (Kenyon)

Top 8:

1. Jesse Ssengonzi (Chicago) – 46.56
2. Cooper Costello (Chicago) – 47.20
3. Avery Clapp (JHU) – 47.27
4. Julien Camy (Calvin) – 47.35
5. Frank Applebaum (CMS) – 47.64
6. Ryan Soh (Emory) – 47.74
7. Garrett Clasen (Chicago) – 47.77
8. Michael Kohl (Trinity U.) – 47.80

Chicago look strong in this event, led by 2023 runner-up Jesse Ssengonzi who posted the only sub-47 time to scare David Fitch’s NCAA record. His freshman teammate Cooper Costello will join him in the championship final after slicing another 16-hundredths of a second off his title-winning time at UAAs. (Ssengonzi missed UAAs to represent Uganda in at the World Aquatics Championships.) Garrett Clasen rounds out the Phoenixes in the championship final, moving up after finishing 9th last year.

Avery Clapp is an NCAA All-American in the 200 fly from last year, but seems to have found his groove in the shorter event as he clocked a best time this morning to qualify 3rd. Another mid-distance specialist in the final is 200 fly national record-holder Frank Applebaum, who was just off his best time of 47.41 this morning.

Women’s 100 Yard Butterfly – Prelims

• Division III Record: 52.64, Kirsten Nitz (Wheaton), 2014
• 2023 Champion: 53.65, Lily Klinginsmith (Tufts)

Top 8:

1. Alex Turvey (Pomona-Pitzer) – 53.57
2. Samantha Kilcoyne (Williams) – 54.31
3. Margaret Farrell (Calvin) – 54.86
4. Emma Pritchett (Denison) – 54.96
5. Emma Schulman (Williams) – 55.08
6. Hope Xayaveth (NYU) – 55.10
7. Alesha Kelly (Chicago) – 55.27
8. Alise Hale (Geneseo) – 55.31

Alex Turvey clocked the only sub-54 performance of the morning and a new best time to lead prelims of the women’s 100 fly (53.57). With the transfer of 2023 champion Lily Klinginsmith to Brown, there doesn’t appear to be anyone to challenge Turvey tonight. Samantha Kilcoyne, who qualified 2nd, holds a best time of 53.97 from 2023, but didn’t quite match it in the final last year as she settled for 4th. Here, she leads a trio of 54-point swims.

Maggie Farrell qualified 3rd (54.86) after placing 7th last year. She was just two-hundredths off her best time set in December. Behind her, Emma Pritchett, who placed 3rd last year, is the last returning finalist (54.96).

Everyone in this final is an upperclassmen except for Hope Xayaveth, a freshman from NYU. She holds a best time of 54.43 from high school and will look to move up if she can match that time tonight.

Men’s 200 Yard Freestyle – Prelims

• Division III Record: 1:34.74, James McChesney (TCNJ), 2023
• 2023 Champion: 1:34.74, James McChesney (TCNJ)

Top 8:

1. James McChesney (TCNJ) – 1:36.44
2. Colin Twiss (Coast Guard) – 1:37.00
3. Dalton Jobe (Washington & Lee) – 1:37.23
4. Oliver Schalet (Williams)/Tag Curwen (Pomona-Pitzer) – 1:37.54 (TIE)
5.  —
6. Nathaniel Taft (Hamilton) – 1:37.69
7. Justin Finkel (Connecticut College) – 1:37.78
8. Alexander Atherton (Williams) – 1:37.81

Unsurprisingly, NCAA record-holder James McChesney is your top seed heading into tonight’s final. The senior clocked 1:36.44 to lead the field. He was 1:37.15 in prelims last year before dropping a new NCAA record, so we could be on record watch tonight. He was out faster than NCAA record pace this morning (21.79/24.08 vs. 21.76/24.24) but held 25 on the back-half. Still, he cleared the field by over half a second.

McChesney is the only returning A-finalist from last year. Colin Twiss leads the charge behind him, shaving two-hundredths of a second off his best time from February (1:37.00).

Oliver Schalet dropped over two seconds from his entry time to tie Pomona-Pitzer’s Tag Curwen for 4th. Schalet has been as fast as 1:35 on a flying start, so he could look to rise in the rankings, while Curwen is coming off of a SCIAC title and personal best.

Top seed Justin Finkel seemed to fade a bit in his heat, but still made it into the final in 7th. If he can get close to his 1:35.69 from NESCACs tonight, he’ll be in the mix for the title.

Women’s 200 Yard Freestyle – Prelims

• Division III Record: 1:44.82, Kendra Stern (Amherst), 2011
• 2023 Champion: 1:47.44, Kaley McIntyre (NYU)

Top 8:

1. Kaley McIntyre (NYU) – 1:47.34
2. Emily Harris (Denison) – 1:48.67
3. Penelope Helm (Emory) – 1:49.78
4. Ella Roberson (MIT) – 1:49.96
5. Nicole Ranile (NYU) – 1:50.51
6. Grace Wenger (Bates) – 1:50.54
7. Bengisu Caymaz (Kenyon)  – 1:50.64
8. Julia Tuinman (JHU) – 1:50.76

Kaley McIntyre swam a tenth faster than her winning time from last year. She is the heavy favorite heading into the finals. Three other swimmers broke the 1:50 mark behind her.

There are three freshman who will feature in tonight’s final, including 500 free champion Bengisu Caymaz.

Men’s 400 Yard Medley Relay – Prelims

• Division III Record: 3:10.51, Emory (S. Ono, A. Wilson, C. Baker, O. Smith), 2017
• 2023 Champion: 3:11.39, Kenyon (Y. Kosian, L. Weekes, M. Krtinic, D. Dragojlovic)

Top 8:

1. Chicago (Tritter, Clasen, Ssengonzi, Vernhes) – 3:11.98
2. Emory (Braunchweig, Meyer, Echols, Goudie) – 3:12.14
3. Calvin (Bajwa, Gemmen, Camy, Platt) – 3:13.51
4. Williams (Nichol, Grover, Nunez, Schalet) – 3:14.13
5. Kenyon (Brooks, Dobric, Krtinic, Dragojlovic) – 3:14.33
6. Tufts (Lundgren, Adams, Sikka, LaBarge) – 3:15.09
7. CMS (Tan, Deedy, Applebaum, Breazeale) – 3:15.21
8. NYU (Maas, Ralston, Watanakun, Wehbe) – 3:15.29

Like they did in the 200 medley relay, NYU used Derek Maas on backstroke. He dropped a 47.30 to get NYU out to a strong start. That was the fastest backstroke split of the field, and just off of his season best of 46.55. NYU ended up qualifying 8th.

Chicago had a strong swim to qualify 1st, buoyed by stellar breaststroke and butterfly legs from Garrett Clasen (52.88) and Jesse Ssengonzi (46.12). Ssengonzi had the fastest butterfly split of the field. His performance bodes well for the individual event tonight, where he qualified just 0.1-seconds off David Fitch’s NCAA record.

The fastest breaststroke split came from Jake Meyer on Emory’s 2nd-qualifying relay (52.54). The fastest freestyle split came from 50 free champion Tobe Obochi, who dropped 42.36 on MIT’s 400 medley relay, though it wasn’t enough to lift the Engineers out of the B-final. That appears to be the fastest 100 free split ever swum in D3.

Women’s 400 Yard Medley Relay – Prelims

• Division III Record: 3:38.05, Kenyon (O. Smith, J. Fadely, C. Hart, E. Mirus), 2022
• 2023 Champion: 3:39.28 Kenyon (O. Smith, J. Fadely, A. Axas, A. White)

Top 8:

1. MIT (Augustyn, Chen, Levy, Roberson) – 3:40.52
2. Kenyon (Wukitch, Fadely, Eisenbeis, Geboy) – 3:41.05
3. NYU (Ranile, Li, Marshall, McIntyre) – 3:44.05
4. Denison (Park, Thielking, Palmroos, Kadlecik) – 3:44.29
5. Williams (Verkleeren, Wishnack, Schulman, Yang) – 3:44.32
6. Emory (Huang, Cohen, McDonald, Sanderson) – 3:45.10
7. Tufts (Harrison, Wheeler, Foltenyi, Cudney) – 3:46.18
8. Chicago (Georgopoulou, Soosai, Kelly, Olivo) – 3:46.61

After claiming the 200 medley crown last night for their first national relay title ever, the MIT women are now the favorites to sweep the medley relays. Kate Augustyn (54.38), Edenna Chen (1:00.73), Lauren Levy (55.79), and Ella Roberson (49.62) combined to shave over a second off their winning time from NEWMACs. The biggest improvement came from Chen, who was only 1:02.55 on that relay. This relay could conceivably drop two more seconds from the breaststroke leg alone, as Chen has been as fast as 58.96 at 2022 NCAAs.

Defending champions Kenyon got the only sub-1:00 breaststroke split of the field from Jennah Fadely (59.51). They were the only team to qualify within a second of the Engineers. Fadely was joined by Caleigh Wukitch on backstroke (55.14), Gwenyth Eisenbeis on butterfly (55.60), and Sydney Geboy on freestyle (50.80).

Top seed Williams added over five seconds from their entry time to sit in 5th, though Sophia Verkleeren was the only constant between those two relays. If the Ephs make some substitutions for tonight, they could put themselves back in conversation for the title.

Women’s 1-Meter Diving — Prelims

• Division III Record: 515.90, Danica Roskos (TCNJ), 2011
• 2023 Champion: 431.40, Sydney Bluestein (Amherst)

Top 8:

1. Kailee Payne (Ithaca) – 468.45
2. Abigail Wilkov (Case Western) – 448.05
3. Lilia Atanda (Chicago) – 446.30
4. Sydney Bluestein (Amherst) – 431.15
5. Veronica Fong (Chicago) – 428.35
6. Wenxuan Tang (Chicago) – 426.80
7. Fiora Beratahani (MIT) – 422.40
8. Alexa Rizzo (Nazareth) – 416.35

Junior Kailee Payne of Ithaca College is the top qualifier, leading the back with 468.45 points. Defending champion Sydney Bluestein made it through to finals for Amherst. Chicago will pick up a lot of points in this event with three athletes through to the championship final.