2024 NAIA National Championships: Day 1 Finals Recap

2024 NAIA Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving National Championships

• Dates: March 6-9, 2024
• Times: Prelims 9AM Eastern, Finals 5PM Eastern
• Location: Columbus Aquatics Center in Columbus, Georgia
• Defending Champions:
  • Keiser women (2x)
  • Keiser men (5x)
• Psych Sheets:
  • Men’s Psych Sheet
  • Women’s Psych Sheet
• Live Results
• Live Video

Day 1

Women’s 200 Yard Medley Relay

• Meet Record: 1:41.40 – Fresno Pacific (2012)

Podium:

1. Keiser – 1:41.63
2. Lindsey Wilson – 1:43.77
3. Milligan – 1:45.73
4. Olivet Nazarene – 1:45.81
5. Indiana Wesleyan – 1:45.87
6. St Thomas – 1:45.92
7. SCAD – 1:46.25
8. Cumberlands – 1:46.32

Top-seeded Keiser University opened the meet with a decisive win in the 200 medley relay. The Seahawks won by nearly two body lengths and came within .23 of the meet record of 1:41.40, set by Fresno Pacific in 2012. Marine Lecomte (26.20), Nikoline Biltoft-Jensen (27.88), Ines Laurent (24.09), and Danai Sofoulis (23.46) combined for 1:41.63, beating their seed time by .7.

Lindsey Wilson (Maaike Broersma, Sara Motyl, Natascha Evreinoff Salinas, and Natalia Gorska) went 1:43.77 to claim second place, a full 2 seconds ahead of the rest of the field.

The next six finishers came to the wall in near unison. Milligan edged Olivet Nazarene by .08; ONU beat Indiana Wesleyan by .07; IWU was .05 ahead of St. Thomas, who beat SCAD by .27. SCAD clipped Cumberlands by .07.

Men’s 200 Yard Medley Relay

• Meet Record: 1:26.83 – Oklahoma Baptist (2014)

Podium:

1. Keiser – 1:26.87
2. St Thomas – 1:27.98
3. Milligan – 1:28.85
4. Cumberlands – 1:28.92
5. SCAD – 1:29.05
6. Thomas – 1:30.49
7. St Ambrose – 1:31.41
8. Master’s – 1:32.20

Keiser overcame a .7 deficit on the leadoff backstroke to win the men’s race by 1.1 seconds over St. Thomas with 1:26.87, narrowly missing the meet record of 1:26.83 set by Oklahoma Baptist in 2014. Matheus Queiroz (22.70), Noel de Geus (23.28), Angel Margaritov (21.67), and Hanno Boeckmann (19.22) contributed to the victory.

St. Thomas came to the wall half a body length ahead of Milligan (1:28.85), who beat Cumberlands (1:28.92) by .07 and SCAD (1:29.05) by .20.

Men’s 3-Meter Diving

• Meet Record: 553.85 – Grant Brehaut, Simon Fraser (2004)

Podium:

1. Nicholas Bohm, Bethel (IN) – 286.50
2. Andrew Cestra, Keiser – 273.85
3. Evan Bennett, Aquinas – 259.30
4. Owen Fleck, Bethel (IN) – 207.35
5. Troy Borrero, Aquinas – 205.90
6. Bram Mess, St Ambrose – 200.10
7. Liam Smith, Cumberlands – 190.10

Bethel junior Nicholas Bohm won the 3-meter diving event for the second year in a row, albeit this time in a much larger field of competitors. Bohm scored 286.50 points to secure the crown, beating Keiser’s Andrew Cestra by 12.65 points. Evan Bennett of Aquinas was third (259.30), while Bohm’s teammate Owen Fleck came in 4th (207.35). Bram Mess of St. Ambrose, last year’s runner-up, was 6th this year.

Women’s 800 Yard Freestyle Relay

• Meet Record: 7:25.27 – Keiser University (2023)

Podium:

1. Keiser – 7:31.71
2. St Thomas – 7:37.08
3. Milligan – 7:38.27
4. Master’s – 7:41.95
5. Olivet Nazarene – 7:44.70
6. Bethel (IN) – 7:45.91
7. Cumberlands – 7:47.78
8. Lindsey Wilson – 7:48.15

Keiser successfully defended their title in the 800 free relay, beating St. Thomas by 5.3 seconds with 7:31.71. The Seahawks set the meet record in this event a year ago with 7:25.27. Wednesday night’s quartet consisted of Rachel Bradley, Aubrey Bach, Danai Sofoulis, and Marine Lecomte.

St. Thomas, who placed 6th in 2023, improved by 8.2 seconds to come in second place with 7:37.08.

Men’s 800 Yard Freestyle Relay

• Meet Record: 6:31.45 – Keiser University (2023)

Podium:

1. St Thomas – 6:30.18
2. Keiser – 6:33.27
3. Cumberlands – 6:41.23
4. Milligan – 6:42.64
5. St Ambrose – 6:44.69
6. Master’s – 6:46.73
7. SCAD – 6:47.41
8. Loyola New Orleans – 6:48.08

St. Thomas came into the meet seeded second, 4.5 seconds behind defending champion and meet record-holder, Keiser. The Bobcats pulled off a huge upset victory, dropping 10 seconds and breaking the meet record by 1.27 seconds. Nestor Montero (1:38.78), Robbie Garden (1:37.25), William Birkett (1:37.73), and Daniel Laureyssens (1:36.42) combined for 6:30.18, beating the Seahawks by 3.09 seconds.

Women’s Top 10 After Day 1

1. Keiser – 80
2. Milligan – 64
3. St Thomas – 60
4. Olivet Nazarene – 58
5. Lindsey Wilson – 56
6. Master’s – 48
7. Cumberlands – 46
8. (tie) Indiana Wesleyan / Bethel (Indiana) – 40
9. –
10. SCAD – 38

Men’s Top 10 After Day 1

1. Keiser – 91
2. (tie) St Thomas / Cumberlands – 74
3. –
4. St Ambrose – 65
5. Milligan – 62
6. SCAD – 52
7. Bethel – 51
8. Master’s – 48
9. (tie) Thomas / Olivet Nazarene – 36
10. –