2019 NAIA National Championships – Men’s Meet
- Dates: Wednesday, February 27 – Saturday, March 2; prelims 9 am, finals 5 pm
- Location: Columbus Aquatic Center, Columbus, Georgia (Eastern Time Zone)
- Defending Champions: Keiser University (results)
- Psych Sheet
- Live Results: Available here
- Live Video: Available here
- Championship Central
The 2019 NAIA Swimming and Diving National Championships will get underway tomorrow in Columbus, Georgia. The men’s meet features 23 teams and 196 individual entries, with defending champion Keiser University (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) and University of the Cumberlands (Williamsburg, Kentucky) each fielding a full roster of 18 qualifiers.
The NAIA, which governs the athletic programs of smaller colleges and universities, has sponsored men’s swimming and diving since 1957 and women’s swimming and diving since 1981. 29 NAIA institutions sponsor men’s swimming and diving and 36 NAIA institutions sponsor women’s swimming and diving. The championships will consist of a four-day with 20 events for each gender.
Defending champion Keiser returns national champions Lukas Macek (200 IM, 100 breast, 200 breast) and Marcel Nagy (100 back, 100 free). The Seahawks, only in their third year of existence, also won all 5 relays last year. While it’s difficult to seed the meet, since many teams haven’t yet had the chance to swim fully tapered (unlike NCAA swimmers going into their championships), we have tried to predict outcomes based on last year’s results in conjunction with this year’s top times.
Stars
Diving
University of the Cumberlands senior Thomas Crawford and The College of Idaho’s Nick Carrier are the only two divers entered in the men’s meet.
Freestyle
According to the psych sheet, the top four entrants in the 50 free are Keiser junior Marcel Nagy (20.23), a Grand Valley State transfer, his teammate senior Andre Stukov (20.35), SCAD sophomore Zoltan Monori (20.82), and SCAD freshman Irvin Hoost (20.84). (Nagy is also top seed in the 100 free, 100 back, and 100 fly -events which he swam last year- so for calculation purposes we didn’t include him in the 50 free.) Nagy leads the 100 free qualifiers with 44.63 ahead of Stukov (45.27), Hoost (45.57), and Monori (45.72). Lindenwood-Belleville freshman Lucas Dengler-Harles is seeded 5th with 45.93. In the 200, Dengler-Harles leads the qualifiers with 1:41.27. Andrew Clifford from The College of Idaho, who took 4th last year, is seeded 2nd. SCAD’s Monori is 3rd, while Lindenwood-Belleville freshmen Dengler-Harles and Martin Le Pays Du Teilleul round out the top 5.
Keiser freshman Pol Roch heads the qualifiers in the 500 free (4:30.30) and 400 IM and ranks second in the 1650 free. Lindenwood-Belleville junior Niels Engeln is top seed in the mile (15:47.21) and second seed in the 500, which he won in 2018. VWU-Tech’s Manuel Laguna Gomez is seeded 3rd in both the 500 and the mile.
Backstroke
After Nagy (49.06), the top two seeds in the 100 back are SCAD sophomore Gergo Zachar (49.87) and Cumberlands sophomore Daric Sundeen (50.41). Zachar and Nagy tied for the national title last year. Sundeen leads the qualifiers in the 200 back with 1:49.92. Keiser sophohmore Jan Suchan is seeded 2nd (1:50.00), while defending champion Zachar of SCAD is 3rd. Asbury junior Clay Bisher is also seeded with a sub-1:52.
Breaststroke
Keiser junior Lukas Macek, double-defending champion in both the 100 breast and 200 breast, is 1st and 2nd seed in the respective events with 55.47 and 2:04.84. His teammate senior Joel Hansson comes in with the top 200 time (2:01.67) and the 2nd 100 time (55.91).
Cumberlands senior Jacob Smith ranks 3rd in the 100 (56.06) and 10th in the 200, while Paulo Dias Ignacio Jr. of WVU-Tech, who was an A-finalist in both distances last year, comes in seeded 3rd in the 200 (2:05.02) and 4th in the 100 (56.52).
Butterfly
Keiser’s Nagy, who was runner-up last year, has the top time coming into the meet (48.25). Defending champion Iran Cavalcante-Almeida of ONU (49.29) is seeded 3rd, while Viktor Lyson of Cumberlands (48.99) is between them. SCAD’s Zachar (49.52), and Asbury freshman Alex Wu (49.54) round out the otp 5.
In the 200, ONU sophomore Cavalcante-Almeida is the defending champion and meet record-holder in the event. He is seeded 6th with 1:51.88. SCAD has 4 of the top 5 seeds, led by Gergely Harsanyi (1:49.87). Asbury freshman Wu is seeded 2nd with 1:50.92. Then come the rest of the SCAD contingent: sophomores Monori (1:51.23) and Miles Kredich (1:51.33) and freshman Maik Rieffenstahl (1:51.36).
Individual Medley
Defending champion Macek of Keiser leads the field of qualifiers in the 200 IM with 1:50.12. His teammate Roch tops the field in the 400 IM by far, with 3:55.96. SCAD’s Harsanyi is 2nd seed in the 400 IM (3:59.10) while Monori is 2nd in the 200 (1:51.28) and 3rd in the 400 (4:99.42). Le Pays du Teilleul of Lindenwood is ranked 4th in the 200 behind Keiser’s Hansson, and 4th in the 400.
Team Race
The top teams, scored more-or-less from the psych sheet, are as follows:
- Keiser University – 646
- SCAD Savannah – 551
- Lindenwood University-Belleville – 445
- University of the Cumberlands – 389
- Olivet Nazarene University – 225
- Union College – 196
- Lindsey Wilson College – 184
- Midland University – 163
- West Virginia Tech – 151
- Asbury University – 137
- Loyola University New Orleans – 128
- The College of Idaho – 111
- Thomas University – 99
4-DAY SCHEDULE
Wednesday:
800 Freestyle Relay
Thursday:
200 Free Relay
500 Freestyle
200 Individual Medley
50 Freestyle
400 Medley Relay
1 Meter Diving (Women)
Friday:
200 Medley Relay
400 IM
100 Fly
200 Freestyle
100 Breaststroke
100 Backstroke
3-Meter Diving (Women & Men)
Saturday:
1-Meter Diving
1650 Freestyle
200 Backstroke
100 Freestyle
200 Breaststroke
200 Butterfly
1 Meter Diving (Men)
400 Freestyle Relay
“The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), headquartered in Kansas City, Mo., is a governing body of small athletics programs that are dedicated to character-driven intercollegiate athletics.
In 2000, the NAIA reaffirmed its purpose to enhance the character building aspects of sport. Through Champions of Character, the NAIA seeks to create an environment in which every student-athlete, coach, official and spectator is committed to the true spirit of competition through five core values.”
