College Swimming Roundup: Cal Romps in Minnesota

Mid-Major, D2, and D3 Invites + A Couple National Records

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SWIM NERD
December 07, 2023

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COLLEGE SWIMMING ROUNDUP

🏊‍♀️ SWIMS OF THE WEEK 🏊🏽‍♂️

Minnesota Invite

A little smaller affair than usual, but still some fast swimming here led by Cal. The Golden Bears’ backstroke stars as usual stole the show here: Destin Lasco overall swam better than his performance last year, with 20.53/44.28/1:38.34 backstrokes, a 1:40.16 200 IM, and 18.94/41.26/1:33.06 free relay splits, while Isabelle Stadden swam the same lineup, hitting 24.46/50.26/1:49.21 backs, 1:57.94 IM, and 21.92/47.63/1:45.74 free relay splits. Most notably, that 200 back for her is the top-ranked swim on the season by over a second.

The Cal men split up some relays as they typically do for this meet, resulting in a triplet of eye-popping 400 free relays - 2:48.55, 2:48.88, and 2:51.12 to sweep top 3 at the meet. Besides Lasco’s 41.26, other notable splits came from Gabriel Jett (41.86), Jack Alexy (41.56 leadoff - he bettered that with a 41.41 individual), and Liam Bell (41.98). Those fastest four legs would add up to a 2:46.66, which would be third in the nation less than a tenth behind ASU and Tennessee.

Other notables on the weekend:

  • Arizona’s Ralph Daleiden didn’t swim any individual events, but hit some relays and time trials, ending up with PRs of 19.53/42.00/1:32.43 frees - the 100 a new school record.

  • Megan Van Berkom popped some nationals-worthy swims for the host Golden Gophers. She hit a PR 4:42.63 500 free as well as 1:54.78 200 fly and 4:04.36 400 IM.

  • Pitt’s Sophie Yendell led the Panthers with 22.03/50.25 sprints and a PR 52.08 100 fly.

  • Julia Heimstead was everywhere for the Arizona women, topping out at 22.41/48.54/1:45.43 frees and 51.61/1:55.14 flys.

  • Breaststroke was thought to be weakness for the Cal women this year, but they have a couple women stepping up in the discipline. Alicia Henry went PRs of 59.62/2:08.84, while Jade Neser won the 100 in 59.47.

  • Dare Rose is continuing his yearlong breakout. He PRd his 200 fly (1:39.76) to compliment a 44.98 100 fly win.

  • Harvard’s Will Grant has been an NCAA relay guy, but will be looking to make it individually here - he dipped under 1:41 in the 200 back for the first time to finish behind Lasco in 1:40.68, adding a 1:44.26 200 IM PR and a 45.95 100 back while also playing breaststroker on the medley relays.

Denison Invite

This was a fun one, with 2023 D2 and D3 men’s champs Indy and Emory and D3 women’s champs Denison, runners-up Emory, and D2 women’s runner-up Indy duking it out.

The swim of the weekend came from Indy’s Celina Schmidt. She blasted a 3 second PR in the 200 breast, her 2:11.07 giving her a whopping 3 second lead on the rest of D2 thus far this season. She went PRs in her other events as well - a 1:00.94 100 breast and a 2:01.01 200 IM.

On the men’s side, Cedric Buessing was all over the place for the Greyhounds. The IM/backstroke/distance guy went 1:46.47/3:45.67 IMs, 22.96/49.05/1:43.37 backs, and a 1:37.08 200 free.

Breaststroke was a highlight on the men’s side as well, with Emory’s unparalleled stroke group shining as usual. Jake Meyer led the way here, taking the double distance in 52.55/1:55.02. Supporting him was Henri Bonnault (53.69/1:59.11) and Liyang Sun (53.97).

Denison’s women’s freestyle depth led them to the D3 team title last year, and that depth helped them post top-3 ranked relays in all three free relays, headlined with a nation-leading 7:24.46 800 free relay (Esme Wright 1:50.02/Annie Pfeufer 1:51.29/Quinn Brown 1:52.45/Emily Harris 1:50.70).

Freestyle depth was the name of the game for the Indy men’s NCAA championship last year as well, and that showed through in their #2 ranked 1:18.84 200 free relay (Joao Silva 19.80/Diego Mas 19.76/Oskar Sawicki 19.51/Bartosz Mielniczuk 19.77), even with team-fastest split Aqueel Joseph (19.21) on the B relay.

More D2/D3 Speed

Several other top D2 and D3 teams were in action for their midseason rest meets. At the MIT Invite the big names were the host Engineers and Tufts. Some highlights:

  • MIT star freshman Ella Roberson is starting to make some noise. She took the sprint frees, topping out at 23.05/50.12/1:50.24.

  • She was also the catalyst for some fantastic relays for the Engineers. Perhaps the best of the lot was a 3:43.80 400 medley relay (Kate Augustyn 55.10/Edenna Chen 1:01.36/Kailey Simons 56.56/Roberson 50.78), but she also blasted a 22.13 200 free relay anchor.

  • The MIT men were led by Tobe Obochi (19.89/43.49 sprints with 19.09/43.03 relay anchors) and Jaden Luo (1:37.24 200 free, 1:47.88 200 IM).

  • Eric Lundgren was a strong performer for the Tufts men, taking the backstroke double (48.61/1:46.55), while fifth year Peter Labarge was just behind Obochi in the sprints (19.95/44.71).

Calvin University also hosted their annual winter invite. In addition to the hosts, northern D2 stalwarts GVSU, Findlay, and Northern Michigan were in attendance. The tale of the tape here:

  • 2023 D2 mile champ Eric Hieber from GVSU is going to another level. He went 1:36.24/4:19.63/15:08.97 frees, the 500 his first time delving under the 4:20 mark.

  • Findlay’s Tim Stollings, a former 100 fly champ himself, also put together a heck of a weekend, going 20.07 free, 21.45/46.18 backs (the latter a PR), and 46.79 100 fly.

  • Calvin’s Julien Camy finished just behind Stollings in the 100 fly in 46.85, a time which would have taken 4th at 2023 D3 NCAAs. He’s hacked over a second off his PR in the event thus far this year.

  • Swim of the weekend on the women’s side was Calvin’s #1-ranked 3:23.85 400 free relay. That relay featured a balanced team of Isabella Gable (50.93), Maggie Farrell (51.07), Emma Merkel (51.74) and Sydney Sonday (50.11).

  • GVSU’s Lucy Hedley continued her strong campaign, going 23.34/50.81/1:50.07 to sweep the sprint frees.

Other various strong lower-divisions swims from the weekend:

  • Kellen Roddy from Johns Hopkins hit some strong distance times to put himself on top of the division - 4:25.23/15:20.93.

  • Not to bury the lede, but Claremont-Mudd-Scripps took on Pomona-Pitzer in a dual and Frank Appelbaum broke his own D3 200 fly record with a 1:43.87. He also added a 47.41 in the 100.

  • P-P’s Larry Yu was his usual versatile self at this dual - 22.74/48.64/1:48.04 backs, 54.29 breast, and 1:47.75 200 IM made up his day - all but the 50 back PRs.

  • Yu’s teammate on the women’s side Alex Turvey also had herself a day with three season bests of 23.24/50.72 free and a #1 national ranked 54.29 100 fly.

  • 200 free D3 record holder James McChesney was strong at his team’s invite, hitting 20.14/44.05/1:37.84/4:31.96 frees and 48.16/1:49.70 flys.

  • Three other strong performances by D3 men’s sprinters in various meets - RIT’s Mike Atanasoff went a 20.24 50, Saint Mary’s Luke Schwenk went 20.33/44.51 with a 19.77 relay split, and Ithaca’s James Collishaw 20.39/44.62.

Mid-Major Miscellany

Some D1 mid-majors were also in action, with good times scattered all over the nation:

  • UMBC’s Oliver Gassman was a butterfly force at the Bucknell Invite, nipping his PR in the 100 fly with a 46.30, and also featuring a 20.47 50 fly relay spilt.

  • Abby Daniel played the same role for the Akron women at their Zippy Invite, knocking three tenths off her 100 fly PR for a 51.31 (the fastest in the nation on the weekend), adding a 1:55.87 200 fly PR, 1:56.78 200 IM, and 22.06/48.74/1:48.55 free relay splits.

  • Meanwhile Princeton’s Eleanor Sun had the fastest 200 IM on the weekend with a 1:56.26 two and a half second PR at the Big Al Invite - she also hit PRs in the longer IM (4:06.07) and 200 back (1:56.26).

  • Also at Big Al, three Penn women put up mile times that will put them in or near the running for NCAA invites - last year’s 10th place finisher Anna Kalandadze hit a 15:54.93, while Anna Moehn went a PR 16:18.49 and Sydney Bergstrom went 16:21.85

  • Some fireworks on the men’s side too - host Princeton’s Mitchell Schott went a 1:33.97 200 free to just miss his PR by .03, while Denver’s Dylan Wright hit a massive two second PR with a 1:41.80 200 back.

  • Oakland’s Christian Bart has been knocking on NCAA qualification in the 100 breast for the past few years. He knocked a hundredth off his PR for a 51.90 for the fastest 100 breast on the weekend, while in the same race Keiser’s Noel De Geus smashed his own NAIA national record with a 52.14. He’d later also break the NAIA record in the 200 breast with a 1:54.65.

  • Miami-OH’s Nicole Maier, perhaps the best overall D1 Mid-Major swimmer out there, had a notable meet at her team’s hosted invite. She swam a bunch of different stuff as she usually does - the 2023 400 IM B final champ PRd her 100 free with a 47.97 and also blasted a 21.78 50 free relay split.

🏊🏽‍♂️ Weekend Preview 🏊🏼

A couple more fast meets on the docket here - let’s see what Henderson State’s mighty sprint squads can pull out at the Delta State Christmas Invite. Meanwhile in D3, the Williams/Tufts/WPI/Wesleyan quad meet usually yields some champs-quality times. Also, the Army-Navy dual is always a treat.

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