2021 NCAA Division II Men’s Championships: Day 1 Prelims Live Recap

2021 NCAA Division II Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships

• Wednesday, March 17 – Saturday, March 20, 2021
• Birmingham CrossPlex / Birmingham, AL (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending champion: Queens (5x) – 2019 results
• Streaming
• Championship Central
• Live Results
• 2021 NCAA Division II Men’s psych sheet

Day One

The men’s competition on Wednesday morning will consist of heats of 200 IM and 50 free. In the IM, defending champion of Emmanuel Fava of Delta State is seeded second (1:45.51) behind Drury junior James Brown. The next four contenders are all seeded with 1:47s: Lindenwood freshman Matheo Mateos-Mongelo, Henderson State junior Stephen Jones, Queens junior Jan Delkeskamp, and Grand Valley sophomore Roger Miret Sala.

Drury freshman Karol Ostrowski, who broke the NCAA Division II record in the 50 free last November with 19.09 leads second-seeded Matej Dusa, a Queens freshman, by .24 coming into heats. Other contenders for the top-8 in the sprint free include Drury junior Alex Bowen; St. Cloud State sophomore Abe Townley; McKendree junior Gregg Lichinsky, who was runner-up in this event a year ago; Findlay sophomore Tim Stollings; Wingate junior Viacheslav Ohnov; and Wayne State sophomore Luka Cvetko.

Men’s 200 Yard Individual Medley – Prelims

• NCAA DII Record: 1:41.61 – Marius Kusch, Queens (NC)  (2018)
• Meet Record: 1:41.94 – Matthew Josa, Queens (NC) (2015)

Finals qualifiers:

1. Alex Kunert, Queens – 1:45.09
2. Emanuel Fava, Delta State – 1:45.33
3. Balazs Berecz, Queens – 1:45.85
4. Matheo Mateos-Mongelo, Lindenwood – 1:47.27
5. Andrew Rodriguez, Drury – 1:47.29
6. Stephen Jones, Henderson State – 1:47.38
7. Patryk Winiatowski, Lindenwood – 1:47.60
8. James Brown, Drury – 1:47.63
9. Roger Miret Sala, Grand Valley –1:47.65
10. Jan Delkeskamp, Queens – 1:47.67
11. Alexander Capizzo, Wayne State – 1:47.99
12. Micah McRea, Lenoir–Rhyne – 1:48.09
13. Mahmoud Elgayar, Colorado Mesa – 1:48.62
14. Yannick Plasil, Queens – 1:48.65
15. Erikas Kapocius, NMU / Andy Huffman, Missouri S&T – 1:48.79 (tie)
16. –

2020 runner-up, junior Alex Kunert of Queens, led the qualifiers in morning heats with his 1:45.09. That’s .8 faster than his finals time from a year ago. The defending national champion, Delta State junior Emanuel Fava, qualified second with 1:45.33. His winning time last year was 1:44.10.

Balazs Berecz of Queens dropped 1.1 seconds from his seed time to qualify third (1:46.85). Drury juniors Andrew Rodriguez (1:47.29, a 1-second improvement) and James Brown (1:47.63) finished 5th and 8th overall. Rodriguez won the consolation final a year ago with 1:47.75.

Other big drops came from Lindenwood sophomore Patryk Winiatowski (-1.42) and Northern Michigan sophomore Erikas Kapocius (-.75).

Queens and Drury, both vying for the team title this year, both placed two in the A final, but Queens also added two to the B final.

Men’s 50 Yard Freestyle – Prelims

• NCAA DII Record: 19.08 – Karol Ostrowski, Drury (2020)
• Meet Record: 19.18 – Serghei Golban, Lindenwood (2016)

Finals qualifiers:

1. Karol Ostrowski, Drury – 19.31
2. Matej Dusa, Queens – 19.35
3. Alex Bowen, Drury – 19.47
4. Giulio Brugnoni, Delta State – 19.63
5. Kham Glass, Drury – 19.68
6. Skyler Cook-Weeks, Queens – 19.74
7. Michael Wolsek, Wayne State – 19.81
8. Viacheslav Ohnov, Wingate – 19.87
9. Diego Mas, UIndy / Luka Cvetko, Wayne State – 19.91 (tie)
10. –
11. Tim Stollings, Findlay – 19.92
12. Igor Dantas, Emmanuel – 19.94
13. Raphael De Paiva, Carson-Newman / Gregg Lichinsky, McKendree – 19.95 (tie)
14. –
15. Elliott Irwin, Lindenwood – 19.96
16. Alec Dawson, Nova S’eastern / Franz Mueller, Wayne State – 19.99 (tie)

Drury freshman Karol Ostrowski, who broke the NCAA record earlier this season, added .22 but still qualified first out of morning heats with 19.31. Queens freshman Matej Dusa was right at his seed time with 19.35 for second.

Drury added another pair to the A final when junior Alex Bowen dropped .04 to qualify third and junior Kham Glass improved his seed time by .4 to win his heat by half a body length and qualify 5th in 19.68.

Delta State senior Giulio Brugnoni, who came in third in 2020 with 19.73 in the final, clocked a 19.63 in morning heats to qualify fourth for the final. Skyler Cook-Weeks, a Queens junior who finished 10th in 2020, dropped .14 to qualify sixth. Wayne State freshman Michael Wolsek (PB by .37) and Wingate junior Viacheslav Ohnov also made top-8.

There was a swim-off for 16th place between Nova S’eastern senior Alec Dawson and Wayne State senior Franz Mueller, who had tied with 19.99 in heats. Dawson flipped first and held onto his lead to win the right to swim in tonight’s consolation final, going 19.76 to Mueller’s 19.91. Both went faster than in heats and both improved from their seed times.

Men’s 1000 Yard Freestyle – Slower Heats

• NCAA DII Record: 8:56.76 – Alex Kunert, Queens (NC) (2019)
• Meet Record: 8:57.06 – Mitch Snyder, Drury (2009)

Top 8 from morning:

1. Matthew Daniel, St. Leo – 9:11.21
2. Vincent Jaworski, Lindenwood – 9:13.33
3. John Stewart, Delta State – 9:14.66
4. Mohamed Hegazy, Queens – 9:16.83
5. Lucas Simao Lima, Drury – 9:17.11
6. Enzo Kihara, Emmanuel – 9:17.71
7. Jan Hanzal, Lindenwood – 9:18.32
8. Ean Vandergraaf, Drury – 9:30.67

The heats were swum fastest to slowest by seed time. In the first heat Lindenwood sophomore Vincent Jaworski improved his seed time by 3.76 seconds to win a close race over Delta State junior John Stewart in the first heat. Jaworski went 9:13.33, while Stewart clocked a best-by-4.9-seconds 9:14.66. Queens junior Mohamed Hegazy was third in the heat with 9:16.83.

Heat 2 went to junior Matthew Daniel of St. Leo, who crushed his seed time, dropping 9.2 seconds to finish in 9:11.21. Drury junior Lucas Simao Lima dropped 3 seconds to come in second with 9:17.11.

The final heat went to Drury junior Ean Vandergraaf in 9:19.67, an 11-second improvement from his seed time.