COLLEGE SWIMMING ROUNDUP

The College Swimming Roundup is brought to you by The CG Sports Company, the representation behind some of your favorite swimmers like Elizabeth Beisel, Beata Nelson, and Kieran Smith.

🏊‍♀️ SWIMS OF THE WEEK 🏊🏽‍♂️

Power Five Power

We went through the historic swims on the weekend yesterday - Douglass, Mac Neil, Walsh, Crooks, Ramadan, Liendo, et al. But what I love about the conference meet season are the stories a little further back in the results - the freshman on their first full college taper, the sophomore getting in the groove after a tough transition year, the junior in their first championship finals relay, the senior ending their career on a high note. We are going to rapid-fire through some stories from the first big weekend of Power Five conference meets here:

Disclaimer: So much good swimming going on, it's hard to hit every PR or nationally-relevant swim in a weekly newsletter. If somebody who did something great isn't mentioned here, know that we see you!

• Levi Sandidge of Kentucky was one of the best distance recruits in this year's freshman class, coming out of high school with a 14:49.75 mile best. He had a decent midseason meet - 14:51 mile, with a 4:26 500 and 3:51.34 IM. He hit a PR 4:20.24 500 and 3:46.79 IM the first few days of SECs, but was relegated back in the bonus final. Then he dove in for the fast heat of the mile and took control. He had an almost 2 second lead on the field after the first 500 (4:22.26!) and never looked back, holding 26.mids to finish in a NAG record and top time in the country 14:31.47.

• Almost lost in the hubbub of the UVA women's historic performances, NC State's freshman Kennedy Noble dropped almost two seconds off her high school PR to win the ACC 200 back in 1:50.24. A 51.46 100 back and 1:55.77 200 IM, both PRs, wrapped up an outstanding week for her.

• Tons of breakout sophomores this year, but my favorite in this category is NC State's Arsenio Bustos. He was barely on the wrong side of the bubble in 2022 - just a few hundredths off in the 200 IM, and from his first prelim swim (1:43.58, almost two tenths off his best), it looked like it might be more of the same this year. But he absolutely exploded in finals with a 1:40.31 that stands #2 in the country. He followed that up with a 44.97 100 fly and 1:52.34 200 breast, and while he's got to figure out fast prelims swimming (he did those latter times from the B finals of both events), he's at least got his NCAA spot locked up this year.

• The story on LSU this year was all Maggie Mac Neil. The fifth year followed Rick Bishop, one of her former coaches at University of Michigan, to his first college head coaching job and everyone wanted to see how it would work out. Apparently a rising tide lifts all boats, and nowhere was that more apparent than sophomore Jenna Bridges. She already had the 500 free school record from 2022, but lowered that by a couple tenths for a 4:43.12, and also dropped over a second in her 100 fly for a 53.14 finish, but her grand moment came in the last 50 of the 200 fly. Coming out of the 150 in fifth place, she blazed home in 29.14 - eight tenths faster than the rest of the field - to take the win in 1:54.18.

• Ohio State's Catherine Russo was a two-event Big Ten scorer in 2021 and three-event scorer in 2022 while earning an individual invite to NCAAs, but the junior took another step forward at Big Tens this year. She won the consolations finals of all her events - 50 free (22.06), 100 free (48.69) and 100 fly (52.32) and cracked her first conference relay lineup - splitting a 48.22 second leg of the Big Ten champ Ohio State 400 free relay.

• Every US swimming fan remembers Jake Mitchell. The now-junior had possibly the most famous time trial off all time, dipping under the FINA A cut in the 400 free at Olympic Trials to make the Tokyo team. He had an off NCAAs meet for Michigan last year, transferred to Florida, and had perhaps the meet of his life at SECs. He started off anchoring UF's championship 800 free relay in 1:31.45, second fastest split of the field. He swam by legendary finisher Jake Magahey in the 500 for a 4:09.85 conference championship, his first time under 4:12. He couldn't quite hold off Magahey in the 200 free rematch the next day, but still PRd with a 1:32.69, and finished it off with a 14:46.91 mile just a bit off of his best in that event.

• Virginia senior Ella Nelson sometimes gets lost in the Douglass/Walshes commotion, but she's been a superstar in her own right. At ACCs, she dropped three seconds in the 400 IM and dipped under 4:00 for the fist time with a 3:59.33 - a 1:06.1/55.9 back half was the catalyst for that. She also tied for the win in the 500 with a 4:38.04 PR. She got DQd for a flinch in the 200 breast but would have placed 2nd with a 2:04.79, just off her best. She'll be a strong A finals contender in any of these events or the 200 IM come March.

• Mizzou's fifth-year Jack Dahlgren has been a versatile star for Mizzou since he stepped on campus. He swims fast every meet and swims a little bit of everything. That didn't change at SECs - here's his "box score:" 1:31.34 free, 45.47/1:39.80 back, 18.76/41.46 free relay splits. He's a player in any of those events come March, and might go down as the best male swimmer in Mizzou history.

Mid-Majors, Major Times

Some exciting meets and nationally-relevant times from the smaller conference meets this week.

Several meets came down to the last day, and sometimes the last event: In Dallas, the Houston women held off a hard charging Florida International squad (FIU placed 1-4 in the 200 breast and won the 400 free relay) to take the American Athletic Conference. The best swims from the meet, and best chances for NCAA qualification were Joleigh Crye's 59.07 breast and Christie Chue's 59.28/2:08.73 breasts.

In the Horizon League, the Oakland men won their 10th consecutive title coming from behind the win the final 400 free relay with a 2:52.70 meet record to edge the IUPUI Jags by 11 points. Oakland's Christian Bart and IUPUI's Logan Kelly had a fantastic race in the 100 breast, 51.91-51.94 - those are going to be bubble times for NCAAs.

The Patriot League came down to the final race as well - Navy edged Army 2:54.09-2:54.43 to pass up the Black Nights and keep their conference streak alive.

A number of swimmers in other conferences submitted NCAA-worthy times. USC transfer Laticia-Leigh Transom, now swimming for Hawai'i, went 22.26/47.86/1:45,47 free, 51.88 back - she should feel good about her invite shot. 2:08.86 and 2:09.28 from SDSU teammates Christine Williams and Kristin Murphy stand a good shot of making it to March. Navy's Jonah Harm and George Washington's Djurdje Matic popped 45.58/45.76 100 flys at their respective conference meets. These are going to be strong bubble cases.

D2/D3 Wrapup

This was also the last major week for D2 and D3 conference championships.

The Nova Southeastern women made the biggest splash at the Sunshine State Conference - they broke - no, crushed - the D2 record in the 800 free relay with a 7:12.56 off 1:47.04/1:49.08/1:50.16/1:46.28 splits. That leadoff by Emilia Ronningdal is best in the division by half a second - she also leads the country in the 200 IM with a 1:59.56. The next night, anchor on that relay Emily Trieschmann blasted a 9:43.69 D2 record 1000. The Shark women are absolutely nasty in the longer events - they have 3 of the top 16 in the 200 free and 500 free, and 4 of the top 16 in the 1000. They also have the best sprint breaststroker in the division, with Savanna Best popping a 1:00.03 100 breast and a 27.44 50 breast relay split. A couple of Lynn teammates were also standouts - Laura Dekoninck went 22.71/50.50/1:50.09 free and 55.18 back, while versatile Luna Mertins went 22.83/1:48.77 free, 1:56.56 back, and 53.19/1:58.43 fly for 3 event wins and a runner-up.

On the men's side, sophomore Thomas Flower went 1:33.92 200 free to lead off NSU's 800 free relay - that leads the division by over a second. Tampa's Santi Corredor and NSU's Jarryd Baxter had three fantastic showdowns, though Corredor got the best of all three: 1:43.36-1:43.85 200 back, 1:46.41-1:46.68 200 IM (with Florida Southern's Matteo Zampese actually getting the win in 1:45.73), and 3:45.75-3:46.67 400 IM, as Corredor closed in a 50.23 to run down Baxter from 3.5 seconds back.

At GLIACs, Grand Valley State led the way on both sides. Lucy Hedley was the top performer for the Laker women, her 50.96/1:48.50/4:50.80/10:20.51 performances all PRs, with the middle two both top-10 in the country. For the men, the eye-popping performances were St. Cloud State's sprint relays. Their 1:19.16 200 free relay (19.66/20.14/19.60/19.76) sits them fifth in the country, their 1:26.74 (22.43/24.05/20.80/19.46) 200 medley relay is 7th, and their 3:13.16 400 medley relay (48.02/53.54/47.58/44.02) is 10th.

Henderson State's sprint group was the star of the New South conference meet. Kiara Pozvai continued her breakout season with 22.59/49.01/1:49.70 frees and 25.11/54.19 backs- the 100 free leads the country, the 50 free and 100 back are top-5. Lamar Taylor and Jack Armstrong went the 1-2 times in the country in the 50 and 100 frees - Taylor leading the 50 as part of a 19.10/42.81 free, 22.36/46.88 back, 47.21 fly week, and Armstrong leading the 100 - he was 19.49/42.55 free, 46.39 fly for his meet.

In D3, Noah Holstege and the Calvin men's sprint relays stole the show at MIAA Champs. The 5th year now leads the nation by .35 in the 50 with a 19.51 PR, and his 19.14 relay split powered the Knights' 1:18.98 (20.28/19.14/19.70/19.86) 200 free relay nation leader. Hope College won the women's meet, with Sara Kraus's 54.97/1:57.94 back and 2:03.18 IM PRs leading the way - the 200 back is currently #2 in D3.

The #1 swim in that 200 back was also done this week, courtesy of MIT's Kate Augustyn at NEWMACs. She went 54.23/1:57.84 to sit 2nd in the 100 and lead the 200, and also added 2:01.96/4:19.79 IMs. The men's meet featured the top time in the 100 free, with Tobe Obochi going 43.48 to lead that event by a half second.

The D3 men's 100 back is heating up as predicted, with the top 3 swims in the country coming this week. At the Northwest Conference Championships, Tanner Filion went 46.74/1:42.97, and added a 1:36.54 200 free and 19.21/43.50 free relay splits to boot. Nathan Berry of Bates went a 46.82 at NESCACs - 20.00/44.48 frees and a 21.23 50 back relay split made up the rest of his week. John Carroll's Liam McDonnell rounded out the rest of the sub-47s with a 46.95 - he also went a 21.27 back relay split and 19.87/44.06 frees.

🏊🏽‍♂️ WEEKEND PREVIEW 🏊🏼

Round Two of big D1 conference meet weeks is upon us. We're in the thick of it now.

We have Big 12s, Big Ten men, and Pac-12 women for the Power Five.

Big East, WAC, Ivy League, MAC women, America East, Northeast, and the Summit League for mid-majors.

Enjoying the College Swimming Roundup?

Click on a link to vote:

• 👍 Super helpful thank you!

• 😐 Meh - it was ok.

• 👎 Next week better be better or I might hit the unsubscribe button.