2015 NCAA Division II Championships: Day 3 Finals Real-Time Recaps

NCAA Division II Championships – Hot Links

• March 11th-14th, 2015
• Indianapolis, Indiana (IUPUI Natatorium)
• Real-Time results
• Video link (expected to be available when meet starts)
• Championship Central
• Day 3 events: 500 free, 100 back, 100 breast, 200 fly, 800 free relay,  men’s 1-meter diving

Women 500 Yard Freestyle

• Division II: 4:45.69  3/14/2008   Kristen Frost, Southern Conn St

Patri Castro Ortega of Queens broke her third championship record, out of three individual events swum, with a blazing 4:43.37 in the 500. Queens went 1-2 as Lillian Gordy followed in 4:50.70. Drury senior Allie Reynolds went 4:52.07 for third.

Everyone else came in together and when the waves settled the fourth-through-eighth order was: Sarah Pullen of Drury (4:53.33), Alecia McGillivray of Lindenwood (4:53.36), Melanie Tombers of Delta State (4:53.54), Megan Ouhl of Drury (4:53.68), and Alli Crenshaw of Florida Southern (4:53.83).

The 500 was a big event for Queens, who continue to drive a wedge between themselves and Drury. In addition to their top two A finalists, Queens also got 10th and 11th in the consolation. The Royals now lead in the team race by 29 points.

Men 500 Yard Freestyle

• Division II: 4:21.48  3/16/2012   Iaroslav Denysenko, Wingate

Not only one, but two swimmers went under the NCAA record in the men’s race. Defending champion Victor Polyakov of West Chester led the field for 425 yards, when all of the sudden second-place Nick Arakelian of Queens started to sprint. The two turned together at the 475 and it was all arms and legs over the last 25, when Arakelian got his hand to the wall first, in 4:20.98. Polyakov touched second in 4:21.25.

Third and fourth went to Juan Tolosa of Forida Southern and Daniel Bis of Saint Leo, who were right with Arakelian until the end. They finished in 4:24.32 and 4:24.89, respectively.

The rest of the final included Gustavo Silva Santa of Lindenwood (4:26.00), Jonathan Glaser of Missouri S&T (4:27.74), Wingate’s Henning Kleuver (4:29.02), and UCSD’s Chandler Pourvahidi (4:34.34).

Women 100 Yard Backstroke

• Division II: 45  3/14/2014   Mary Hanson, Cal Baptist

In a thrilling finish, Katya Rudenko came from a half-body length down at the 75 to out-touch defending champion and NCAA record-holder, Mary Hanson of Cal Baptist, 52.75 to 52.88.

From out in lane 2, Natalie Burnett of Carson-Newman led the rest of the final with a third-place finish of 54.27. Next to her was Hannah Peiffer of Queens, finishing fourth in 54.55. West Chester freshman Claudia Owczarz placed fifth in 54.72. Elly Maleski of Wayne State claimed sixth over Anastasia Klyarovskaya of Delta State by 1/100, going 54.95 to 54.96. Taking eighth was Jessica Ward of Findlay in 55.22.

Men 100 Yard Backstroke

• Division II: 46.77 3/13/2015 Serghei Golban, Lindenwood

During the morning session, three Lindenwood freshman dominated the field. Two of them were successive owners of the NCAA record, as first Krzysztof Jankiewicz then classmate Serghei Golban went under the old mark. The third, Jakub Jonczyk qualified about .7 behind them.

In finals, though, it was a different story. Pretty much the entire field was out together and it was truly anyone’s game. It looked like they all touched at the same time, too, but one look at the board showed a new record-holder in the event: Jankiewicz of Lindenwood had taken back the record from his teammate Golban. He ended up getting his hand to the wall in 46.65, .25 ahead of teammate Jonczyk (46.90). Third place went to Catalin Ungur of Carson-Newman in 47.02. He was only .02 faster than Sean Feher of Drury (47.04).

Golban took fifth in 47.39, a mere 1/100 ahead of both Dima Turkin of Pfeiffer (47.40) and Bryan Wiener of Lewis (47.40). Jordi Moneseny Diez of Drury finished eighth in 47.51, only .86 off the winning time.

Women 100 Yard Breaststroke

• Division II: R 1:00.66 3/14/2014 Kayla Scott, Wayne State

There was a lot of excitement in the championship final when junior Rebecca Matthews of Lynn in lane 4 looked like she might be challenged for the title by Alena Rumiantceva of Cal Baptist in lane 1. Matthews pulled ahead at the 75 and finished strong, winning in 1:01.03. Jade Arganbright of California University of Pennsylvania used a great back half to slip into second, just ahead of Rumiantceva, 1:02.35 to 1:02.38.

Lindenwood freshman Ewa Dymarek went 1:02.74 for fourth, coming to the wall just in front of Wayne State’s Hannah Loesch (1:02.89). Caroline Rademacher of LIU Post was only 3/100 back, coming in sixth with 1:02.73. Tyen Potgieter of Lynn took seventh in 1:03.31. Madisen Sechena of NMU was disqualified.

Men 100 Yard Breaststroke

• Division II: R 52.43 3/13/2009   Aleksander Hetland, Tampa

Freshman Anton Lobanov of Nova Southeastern controlled the race from beginning to end. He begain with a strong pulldown, made the 50 turn first, and then nailed the finish to clock a 51.63 for the win and a new NCAA record.

Piotr Jachowicz of Wayne State was runner-up for the second year in a row, this time in 52.74. Queens’ Nic Ericksson went 52.85 to claim third. Nikolay Klepikov of Cal Baptist went 53.79 for fourth.

Ivan Capan of Bridgeport and Kacper Pelczynski of Drury tied for fifth, each hitting the wall at 53.88. Not far behind them were Matteo Fraschi of Delta State (53.95) and Tobias Feigl of Limestone (53.96).

Women 200 Yard Butterfly

• Division II: R 1:58.84 3/16/2012 Jaclyn Hynson, Indiana Univ Pa

Defending champion Joyce Kwok of LIU Post, who had qualified seventh and was thus swimming in lane 1, took it out very fast and led the field by a body length at the 100. It looked like she might be on record-breaking pace, but she hit a wall at 175 and the middle of the pool began to catch her with about 10 yards to go. It was Queens’ Hannah Peiffer and McKenzie Stevens and Wingate’s Sofia Petrenko all battling to take over the lead from a fading Kwok.

From the flags to the wall it all got sorted out, and the touch order was Peiffer (1:59.06), Stevens (1:59.56), Kwok (1:59.65), and Petrenko (2:00.03).

The rest of the final was equally competitive. Rachel Brooker of Bloomsburg took fifth with 2:01.65, just ahead of Wayne State’s Kristina Novichenko (2:01.86). Simon Fraser’s Carmen Nam came to the wall in 2:02.67, just edging Hannah Vinyard of Lindenwood (2:02.79).

Men 200 Yard Butterfly

• Division II: R 1:42.99 3/11/2011   Jun Han Kim, Drury

Fresh off his 100 fly record from last night, Matt Josa of Queens erased the 200 mark with his winning time of 1:42.96. Josa wasn’t alone this time, as both Thiago Sickert of Nova Southeastern and 100 fly runner-up Gianni Ferrero of Grand Valley hung with him, or at least within a body length of him, throughout the race. Sickert ended up touching out Ferrero, 1:44.42 to 1:44.52 for second place.

Delta State senior Vlad Zinca led the rest of the finalists, finishing fourth with 1:46.39. Raul Garrastazu of Florida Southern was fifth with 1:46.47. Stanislav Kuzmin of Drury came in just in front of Findlay’s Janko Radmanovic, 1:47.88 to 1:48.04, while Wayne State’s Soren Holm placed eighth with 1:51.02.

Men 1-Meter Diving

• Division II: R 618.70 3/10/1994 Dario DiFazio, Oakland Univ

Bronze medalist on the 3-meter board, Collin Vest of Clarion, claimed the gold medal in 1-meter diving with 564.25 points. Grand Valley’s Tyler Keelean picked up his second silver medal of the meet with 558.55 points. Last night’s winner, Dylan Szegedi of Wayne State place third in 1-meter with 547.50 points.

St. Cloud State’s Tyler Magalis (538.90) and David Sufficool (510.90) went four and fifth, respectively. Nicholas Larmon of Clarion scored 506.10 points for sixth, ahead of Zachary Parry from Cal Baptist (498.65) and Aaron Rooney of St. Cloud State (482.85).

Women 800 Yard Freestyle Relay – Timed Finals

• Division II: R 7:20.08 3/14/2014   Drury

While Tampa had set the pace in the morning with their leading time of 7:28.27, Queens came out of the chutes ready to break the NCAA meet record. First Castro Ortega set up her teammates with but a 1:46.70 leadoff, building a solid three-body length lead over the field. Gordy (1:48.43), Stevens (1:49.89), and Caroline Arakelian (1:49.67) followed, and the Royals smashed the mark, lowering it by nearly 5.5 seconds with their winning 7:14.69.

Drury (Leah Reed, Janet Yu, Kay Gieseke, and Pullen) came to the wall second with 7:20.44, while UCSD (Julia Toronczak, Maddy Huttner, Dari Watkins, and Natalie Tang) placed third in 7:22.44.

The rest of the podium consisted of Wingate (7:25.92), Simon Fraser (7:27.41), Tampa, Limestone (7:30.38), and Delta State (7:30.47).

Men 800 Yard Freestyle Relay – Timed Finals

• Division II: R 6:27.73 3/16/2012   Florida Southern

Queens once again muscled its way to a NCAA meet record, although the men’s quartet did it in a slightly less spectacular manner than the women did. Nonetheless, Arakelian (1:36.13), Ben Taylor (1:37.20), Hayden Kosater (1:37.20), and Josa (1:35.76) slipped in under the old mark with 6:26.29 and etched their names in the record book.

Drury lopped four seconds off their seed time and finished second in 6:29.22, thanks to the collective efforts of Samuel Olson (1:36.45), Luka Matacin (1:39.40), Montseny Diez (1:37.13), and Feher (1:36.24). Nova Southeastern picked up third thanks to their strong swim in the timed final heat of the morning: Marco Aldabe (1:39.70), Sickert (1:34.67), Javier Caballero (1:38.80), and Shane Kleinbeck finished with 6:30.09.

Wingate (6:31.57), Florida Southern (6:32.07), Lindenwood (6:33.10), Tampa (6:35.40), and Missouri S&T (6:36.40) rounded out the podium.

Standings

On the women’s side, Queens used two huge events (500 free and 200 fly) to continue to move away from the field. They now enjoy a 66-point lead over Drury and it doesn’t look like there will be much anyone can do to take them off the path they are on. With the 100 free, 200 back and 400 free relay coming up tomorrow, events in which Queens should lead the scoring, the Royals ought to be feeling pretty good about their chances for a first NCAA team trophy.

Women – Top Ten Through Day Three

1. Queens (NC) 422.5
2. Drury 356.5
3. Wingate 248
4. Nova S’Eastern 180
5. UCSD 159
6. Wayne State 147
7. Delta State 132
8. LIU Post 127
9. Cal Baptist 117
10. Lindenwood 110

The men’s race is much tighter, and all that more exciting because of it. The Royals currently hold first place by a 14-point margin over Drury. Queens should score heavily in the 1650 tomorrow, but Drury has a chance to recoup some of their lost points in the 100 free. Without trying to be too melodramatic, the 200 back could decide the team race. In any case, our prediction model has the team crown coming down to the final relay; it’s sure to be very exciting in Indianapolis tomorrow.

Men – Top Ten Through Day Three

1. Queens (NC) 316.5
2. Drury 302.5
3. Lindenwood 270
4. Grand Valley 230
5. Wayne State 223
6. Florida Southern 196.5
7. Nova S’Eastern 171
8. Bridgeport 169.5
9. Tampa 126
10. Cal Baptist 125.5