This year marked the 34th annual Wheaton Invitational hosted by Wheaton IL. The two day meet was a prelims and finals event, hosting UW-Whitewater, UW-Stevens Point, Hope College and Washington University St. Louis. On both sides, Wash U came out on top. Wheaton’s women’s team and Whitewater’s men’s team were runners up.
The standout performances of the meet was easily Wheaton junior Kirstin Nitz. It seems as though we’re just beginning to learn what she can do. Nitz has competed in – and done really well – in many different disciplines. She’s shown talent in the sprints – and still owns the DIII national record in the 50 freestyle at 22.66 – and in the strokes – and has the national record in the 100 butterfly as well as two NCAA crowns in the event. Now it looks like she’s expanding her range, yet again. In addition to the 200 backstroke, it looks like Nitz may be considering the 200 butterfly for the Big Meet.
Her performance makes her the third woman in Division III to ever be under the 2:00 mark, and only the second to ever do that in season. Given Nitz’ talent to drop quite a bit of time come the end of the season, it’s certainly an open question whether she will be gunning for the record left behind by Williams’ Logan Todhunter.
In addition to her 200 butterfly performance, Nitz also posted a new meet record in the 100 butterfly with a 53.72, which is also the fastest time in DIII at this time by over a second.
Other meet highlights include…
Amy Spaay of UW-Whitewater breaking the meet record in prelims with a 1:02.71 to slip under the 2014 DIII selection time by over two seconds. That time puts her at the top of the DIII list by just shy of three tenths of a second. In her 200 breaststroke, Spaay was .05 off the meet record set last year, touching in at 2:19.59.
In the women’s 100 freestyle, Kristalyn McAfee of Wash U reset her school record in prelims, posting a 51.97 to claim the top spot for finals. In finals, she added a few hundreds but still touched first, finishing in at 52.06, and leading Wash U to a 1-5 sweep.
In the men’s 100 freestyle, Wash U’s Justin Mornell also broke his school record with a 44.17 posted in finals. That time also took down the pool and meet records, as well as being under the 2014 NCAA DIII selected time.
In addition to Nitz’ pool, school and meet records, Wash U’s Amanda Stadermann did some record setting of her own in the 200 butterfly. In prelims, Stadermann posted a 2:03.87 to break her school’s record in the event and drop under the 2014 NCAA DIII selected time. In finals, she finished runner up, with a 2:05.48.
In the men’s 200 butterfly, Wash U’s Reed Dalton reset the meet record and was .26 off the pool record with his 1:50.28. In finals, it was teammate Jacob Nason who claimed the win. Dalton also reset the 100 fly record in prelims with his 48.00, and took the victory in the evening with a 48.72, both times well under the 2014 NCAA selection time.
In the women’s 800 freestyle relay, Wash U broke the pool and meet records with the team of Nicole Zanolli, Marimac Collins, Grace Counts and McAfee, posting a 7:33.68 to finish almost eight seconds ahead of runner up Wheaton. (For the curious, Nitz swam the second leg of Wheaton’s 800 relay and clocked a 1:52.98, the second fastest in the field behind McAfee.)
In the women’s 400 medley relay, Wash U took down the pool and meet records with its 3:51.17 finish. The team of Katie Anderson, Sophie Gan, Nimah O’Grady and McAffee came from behind to nip past UW-Whitewater’s squad for the victory. Whitewater’s Spaay posted a 1:02.07 on her breaststroke split, Nitz’ put up a 58.24 backstroke leg for Wheaton, and McAfee’s freestyle anchor leg for Wash U was 51.57.
The men’s 400 medley relay also saw the fall of a pool and meet records. The Wash U team of Morrell, Reese Frerichs, Dalton and Ross Brown posted a 3:19.58 to claim the win, nearly eight seconds ahead of the Wash U B team.
The women’s 200 medley relay was a very close event, with the top two teams finishing under the old meet record. Wheaton took the win with a 1:46.25, with the team of Erin Bagley, Kayla Robertson, Nitz and Sarah Hunt. Nitz’ 50 fly split (24.47) gave her relay the half second edge it needed for Hunt to hold off Wash U’s Claire Savage (23.74 anchor leg).
Wash U’s 400 freestyle relay team of Collins, Counts, Savage and McAfee posted a new meet record with a 3:28.00, just over two seconds faster than the 2014 selected time for DIII and almost 1.5 seconds ahead of second place Wheaton.
For complete meet results, click here.
Women’s Final Team Scores:
- Wash U (1106)
- Wheaton IL (683)
- Whitewater (666.5)
- Steven’s Point (456.5)
- Hope (397)
Men’s Final Team Scores:
- Wash I (1135.5)
- Whitewater (647.5)
- Stevens Point (640)
- Wheaton (520)
- Hope (407)