Division II Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships
- March 8-11, 2017
- Birmingham CrossPlex, Birmingham, Alabama
- Prelims 10:30 AM, Finals 6 PM – U.S. Central Time Zone (GMT -6 currently)
- Event schedule
- Real-time results – diving
- Real-time results – swimming
- Video link (expected to be available when meet starts)
- Championship Central
After scoring out the psych sheets for the 2017 NCAA Division II Women’s Championship, we now turn our attention to the men’s meet, which is to be held concurrently on March 8-11 at the Birmingham CrossPlex and to be hosted jointly by the University of Alabama in Huntsville and the city of Birmingham.
157 swimmers from 34 teams have been selected to compete at the Division II men’s meet. Two-time defending champion Queens University of Charlotte is hoping to repeat their dominant performances of 2015 and 2016, and come into the meet with four different individuals (Marius Kusch, Nick Arakelian, Dion Dreesens, and Paul Pijulet), plus all five relays, seeded in #1 slots. Rostyslav Fedyna and Zach Bunner are also expected to contribute in numerous events.
Drury, who placed fourth in 2016, will try to challenge Queens with their young squad, led by freshmen Konrad Stepien and Joan Casanovas. Senior Jun Han Kim and junior Rodrigo Caceres are also expected to score for the Panthers. Nova S’eastern, 11th last year, has the depth to pull off a big meet this time around. Junior Anton Lobanov will lead the Sharks, along with classmate Franco Lupoli and seniors Thiago Sickert and Marco Aldabe. Look for Lindenwood, with junior Serghi Golban and sophomores Cristian Vasquez and Kian Quigley, to challenge the leaders, especially as the Lions tend to do well in diving as well. Speaking of diving, Grand Valley State cannot be overlooked. In addition to cleaning up on the boards, they are expected to score well in relays and in individual swims from Gabriel Souza, Marius Mikalauskas, and Harry Shalamon.
While we cannot yet add diving point to our totals, we can remind readers that last year, Grand Valley State scored 84 points in two diving events. They were followed by Colorado Mesa (38), Clarion (37), St. Cloud State (31), Cal Baptist (27), Fresno Pacific (25), Lindenwood (21), West Chester (19), and Indy (18).
A change in NCAA rules made scoring the DII psych sheets easier this year: schools are no longer allowed to over-enter individual events. As a reminder, unlike in Divisions I and III, Division II rules allow a swimmer to compete in up to four individual events. Swimmers are still held to a seven-event limit, but it is up to the individual teams to determine where their swimmers are most useful: individual events or relays.
Here is the psych sheet scored –without diving– for the 2017 NCAA Division II Men’s Championships:
Men’s Team | Projected Score* |
Queens (NC) | 483 |
Drury | 376 |
Nova Southeastern | 341 |
Lindenwood | 223 |
Grand Valley | 218 |
Florida Southern | 212 |
Delta State | 174 |
Colorado Mesa | 171 |
Florida Tech | 132 |
Wingate | 130 |
Cal Baptist | 125 |
Missouri S&T | 125 |
UC San Diego | 122 |
Indianapolis | 112 |
Bloomsburg | 100 |
Limestone | 91 |
Northern Michigan | 91 |
Simon Fraser | 78 |
Wayne State | 75 |
Fresno Pacific | 70 |
West Chester | 69 |
Tampa | 62 |
Bridgeport | 37 |
Carson-Newman | 30 |
McKendree | 15 |
Truman State | 15 |
Lewis | 12 |
Saint Leo | 9 |
William Jewell | 9 |
Henderson State | 8 |
Saginaw Valley | 3 |
CS Mines | 2 |
*does not include 310 diving points
LET’S GO MCKENDREE
Not the phobic of anything but which percentage of the top swimmers are foreing born in II? Seems lotsa out of borders recruiting when reading all those names above…. Nothing wrong with that, rules and all, more of philosophical question
https://swimswam.com/101-international-men-competing-at-ncaa-d2-championships/
101. Confirming what many have guessed in the past.
I’m not against international athletes, but it’s time to elevate mens DII swimming in the eyes of Americans. Many of these programs are forced to recruit foreign athletes to remain competitive. While this is happening, there are athletes not traveling or competing for DI programs that could compete at the DII national level. All because of a stigma against the quality of DII swimming.
Join the discussion
This is a stigma that needs to be changed at the high school and club COACH level. I think that if more HS and Club coaches talked up and directed their swimmers to at least take a look at Div. II that the stigma will begin to turn and more American born swimmers that are going to Div. I programs and competing ONLY during the dual meet season will begin to realize that Div. II is a VERY VIABLE place to compete AND GET A GREAT EDUCATION!
Gary, I couldn’t agree more. Here’s to hoping we see continued change there. Its good to see DII swimming getting faster each year. I have no data to back this claim, but I would guess that DII has seen the largest improvement in NCAA records over the last 10 or so years. Perhaps that growth will be recognized and more american men will consider competing DII.
Let’s go boys