2025 NCAA Division III Championships: Day 3 Finals Live Recap

2025 NCAA DIII Swimming and Diving Championships

• March 19-22, 2025
• Location: Greensboro Aquatic Center, Greensboro, NC
• Times: Prelims 10:00 AM / Finals 6:00 PM (ET)
• Defending Champs: Kenyon women (1x) & Emory men (3x)
• Psych Sheet
• Live Streaming on NCAA.com
• Live Results
• “NCAA DIII Championships” on Meet Mobile
• Recaps
  • Prelims: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3
  • Finals: Day 1 | Day 2

Welcome back D3 fans to what looks to be another exciting session. Last night saw three national records fall. One of those was by the hands of Cooper Costello (Chicago), who became the first D3 swimmer to break 46 seconds in the 100 fly. The sophomore led the 200 fly preliminaries, where he’ll be looking to upset reigning champion and record-holder Justin Finkel of Connecticut College.

Kate Augustyn (MIT) topped the preliminaries of the women’s 100 back with the only sub-54 second effort of the morning. The senior first took hold of the record last year, and then lowered it at the NEWMAC Championships in February.

The final individual record-holder in action tonight is Kenyon’s Jennah Fadely, one of only three women in Division III history to go sub-1:00 in the 100 breaststroke and the newly minted national record-holder as of this January. Fadely will be surrounded by teammates Gabriella Wei and Kalsey Van Eldik in the final tonight as the Owls try to keep pace with NYU in the team race.

NYU got within a second of the 800 free relay record at UAAs, and with Kaley McIntyre firing on all cylinders so far this meet, all eyes will be on the Violets in the closing relay. The session opens with the 200 medley relay, where the MIT women might be on record watch. They are the defending champions and got within 0.12-seconds of Emory’s 2023 standard last year.

The men’s 100 back looks to be an exciting race. Tufts senior Eric Lundgren is the top qualifier out of prelims, but 1-4 are separated by less than a tenth. The men’s 100 breaststroke is led by Henri Bonnault (Emory), the only swimmer in the field with an entry time under 53. The rest of the field is bunched up behind him; 4-8 are separated by just 0.15 seconds.

Men’s 1-meter diving is also tonight. Avery Balch (Centre) leads prelims once again, but he’ll have to contend with 3-meter champion Trent Makowiec (Geneseo) who qualified 2nd.

Women’s 200 Yard Medley Relay – Finals

• Division III Record: 1:39.55, Emory (M. Jungers, A. Glowniak, T. Leone, C. Maki), 2023
• 2024 Champion: 1:39.67, MIT (K. Augustyn, E. Chen, A. Naveen, E. Roberson)

Top 8:

1. MIT (Augustyn, Bernard, Naveen, Roberson) – 1:39.51 Division III Record
2. Kenyon (Eisenbeis, Fadely, Ford, Geboy) – 1:40.26
3. Denison (Park, Tofflemire, Palmroos, Kadlecik) – 1:40.77
4. NYU (Ranile, Li, Xayaveth, Oldham) – 1:40.91
5. Emory (Jungers, Cohen, Greeneway, Kennedy) – 1:40.94
6. Pomona-Pitzer (Yoon, Coppo, Calvi, Mello) – 1:41.97
7. Chicago (Georgopoulou, Soosai, Xu, Zhao)/Calvin (Merkel, Bajwa, Farrell, Sonday) – 1:42.28
8. —

The MIT women are now three-for-three in relay titles at these championships. The squad of Kate Augustyn (25.15), Sarah Bernard (28.46), Annika Naveen (23.88), and Ella Roberson (22.02) combined to defend their title from last year and set the Engineers’ second relay record of these championships.

Bernard, a freshman, is the one newcomer to this relay. She replaces Edenna Chen, the 2022 champion in the 100 breast. Besides the breaststroke leg, Augustyn, Naveen, and Roberson all improved on their splits from last year to drop 0.16 seconds from their winning time last year.

Split Comparison:

Kenyon was briefly in the lead at the 100, thanks to a blistering 26.93 from Jennah Fadely. Her split was over a second faster than the next fastest breaststroke split. The Owls dove in over a second ahead of the Engineers at the exchange, but by the first 25 of the fly leg Naveen had caught Kenyon butterflier Celia Ford (25.00).

Valerie Mello (Pomona-Pitzer) had another notable split, anchoring in 22.06 to lift the Sagehens from 8th to 6th in the final 50.

Williams won the B final with a team of Sophia Verkleeren (25.37), Charlotte Wishnack (27.99), Clare McDermott (24.98), and Bernadette Ramoy (23.24). That time would have placed 5th in the A final.

Men’s 200 Yard Medley Relay – Finals

• Division III Record: 1:25.85, Emory (R. Soh, J. Meyer, J. Echols, C. Lafave), 2023
• 2024 Champion: 1:26.14, Emory (R. Soh, J. Meyer, J. Echols, C. Bjornstad)

Top 8:

1. Tufts (Lundgren, Adams, Sikka, Euvrard)/Emory (Lahmann, Bonnault, Echols, Yin) – 1:26.72
2. —
3. CMU (Deshpande, Lanuza, Morford, Peitler) – 1:27.22
4. Denison (Bevill, Venos, Narcelles, Hensel) – 1:27.27
5. NYU (McQuaid, Nechydyuk, Watanakun, Wehbe) – 1:27.46
6. Chicago (Chan, Xia, Catton, Benderskii) – 1:27.80
7. Bates (Johnson, Somridhivej, Oppenheim, Cory) – 1:27.83
8. WashU (Wolford, Rockaway, Bick, Sibley) – 1:27.94

Tufts and Emory swam a nail-biter of a race that ultimately ended in a tie. The two teams were a half second clear of 3rd place finisher Carnegie Mellon, who led a tight field separated by less than a second.

The Jumbos were out fast thanks to Eric Lundgren (22.00) and Emmett Adams (23.64). Tufts had about a three tenth lead at the 100, but Emory’s Jeffrey Echols (20.69) managed to flip the script on Tufts flier Armaan Sikka (21.31).

Soeren Euvrard dove in three tenths behind, but split 19.77 to pull exactly even with Eagles anchor Dylan Yin at the finish. Emory’s front-half consisted of Nolan Lahmann (22.22) and Henri Bonnault (23.74).

Carnegie Mellon and Denison were also in a tight race, but were able to hold off a late charge from anchor Nick Hensel (19.37). Brayden Morford notably split 20.64 on the fly leg, the fastest in the field.

The fastest freestyle split came from Bates’ Max Cory (19.15), who was off his 18.59 from NESCACs. Kyle Wolford (WashU) swam the fastest backstroke split (21.86).

Kenyon won the B final (1:27.52) with a team of Djordje Dragojlovic (21.88), Noel Tumbasz (24.83), Roman Savage (21.17), and Peter Dunson (19.64).

Women’s 200 Yard Butterfly – Finals

• Division III Record: 1:55.66, Logan Todhunter (Williams), 2012
• 2023 Champion: 1:58.50, Caitlin Marshall (NYU)

Top 8:

1. Nicole Ranile (NYU) – 1:57.72
2. Caitlin Marshall (NYU) – 1:58.18
3. Emily Harris (Denison) – 2:00.33
4. Maeve Kelley (Amherst) – 2:00.90
5. Amelia Stevenson (Kenyon) – 2:01.97
6. Belise Swartwood (MIT) – 2:02.21
7. Mackenzie Mayfield (CMS) – 2:03.55
8. Alise Hale (Geneseo) – 2:03.58

NYU teammates Nicole Ranile and Caitlin Marshall put on a masterclass in the women’s 200 fly, going 1-2 to put up key points for the Violets in the team race.

Ranile was out slightly faster (25.99), but both athletes settled into identical paces at the second 50 (29.52). Marshall split slightly faster on the third 50 (30.31 to 30.57), but Ranile came home faster to dip under the 1:58 barrier for the first time in her career (1:57.72). Marshall was also faster than her winning time from last year (1:58.18).

Emily Harris (Denison) held a strong 3rd for most of the race. Maeve Kelley (Amherst) tried to mount a comeback in the final 50, but ran out of room.

NYU also got a B final win from sophomore Reina Gomez (2:01.39). In this event, they finished 1-2-9-11.

Men’s 200 Yard Butterfly – Finals

• Division III Record: 1:43.21, Justin Finkel (Connecticut College), 2024
• 2024 Champion: 1:43.21, Justin Finkel (Connecticut College)

Top 8:

1. Justin Finkel (Connecticut College) – 1:42.64 Division III Record
2. Cooper Costello (Chicago) – 1:43.42
3. Avery Clapp (Johns Hopkins) – 1:44.82
4. Marco Minai (WashU) – 1:45.21
5. Harrison Thorsen (Emory) – 1:46.00
6. Kyle Huang (Pomona-Pitzer) – 1:46.75
7. Noah Reice (Coast Guard) – 1:47.75
8. John Drumm (CWRU) – 1:48.96

Justin Finkel successfully defended his national title in the men’s 200 fly, lowering his national record in the process. This is the fourth year in a row that this event has been won in national record fashion, as Frank Applebaum did it for two years (2022-2023) before Finkel took hold of it last year.

100 fly champion and newly-minted national record-holder Cooper Costello was expectedly out fast, opening in 22.71/25.96 to Finkel’s 22.98/26.36. However, Finkel showed off his distance pedigree by descending his middle 100 (26.25) while Costello jumped up a full second (26.96). Slightly uncharacteristically, Finkel started to tighten up in the final stretch, but it was still enough to chop over half a second off his record and winning time from last year.

Costello got under 1:44 for the first time to finish 2nd (1:43.42), well ahead of 3rd place Avery Clapp (JHU) (1:44.82).

Williams’ Ryan Nunez won the B final (1:47.04), dropping exactly 0.5 seconds from his prelims time.

Women’s 100 Yard Backstroke – Finals

• Division III Record: 53.29, Kate Augustyn (MIT), 2025
• 2024 Champion: 53.41, Kate Augustyn (MIT)

Top 8:

1. Kate Augustyn (MIT) – 53.41
2. Sydney Smith (MIT) – 54.48
3. Anna Durak (Loras) – 54.66
4. Elisabella Forest (Chicago) – 55.09
5. Gwen Eisenbeis (Kenyon) – 55.24
6. Braelyn Wilson (Kean) – 55.25
7. Elizabeth Pennington (Rowan) – 55.49
8. Irene Yang (Williams) – 56.10

Kate Augustyn tied her winning time from last year en route to back-to-back titles in the women’s 100 back. The senior was out faster than the field (25.88) and back faster than the field (27.53). That is the third time she’s swam that exact time, as she first broke it last year on the 400 medley relay before tying it in the individual event.

Augustyn’s sophomore teammate Sydney Smith, the 100 fly champion, made it 1-2 for the Engineers (54.48). Last year she was 7th in this event. That gave the MIT women crucial points to put a dent in NYU’s growing lead.

Fifth-year Anna Durak (Loras) had a strong swim out of lane 8, blasting into 3rd with her first time breaking 55 seconds.

Megan Jungers (Emory) won the B final in 54.71, a time that would have finished 4th in the A.

Men’s 100 Yard Backstroke – Finals

• Division III Record: 45.75, Tanner Filion (Whitman), 2023
• 2024 Champion: 46.90, Djordje Dragojlovic (Kenyon)

Top 8:

1. Brayden Morford (CMU) – 46.61
2. Djordje Dragojlovic (Kenyon) – 47.18
3. Kyle Wolford (WashU) – 47.22
4. Eric Lundgren (Tufts) – 47.27
5. Teddy McQuaid (NYU) – 47.31
6. Nathan Kim (MIT) – 47.88
7. Zachary Spicer (Emory) – 48.03
8. Jack Watson (Rowan) – 48.91

Brayden Morford added another national title to his resume, winning the 100 back over the reigning champion.

2024 champion Djordje Dragojlovic (Kenyon) was first to the 50 (22.54). Teddy McQuaid (22.63), Morford (22.76), Kyle Wolford (22.78), and Eric Lundgren (22.80). The field came back near even across the board except for Morford, who was the only athlete to split sub-24 (23.85). That was enough to get him to the wall first, chopping over three tenths off his best time (46.61).

Calvin’s Charles Platt won the B final (47.90).

Women’s 100 Yard Breaststroke – Finals

• Division III Record: 59.62, Jennah Fadely (Kenyon), 2025
• 2024 Champion: 59.80, Jennah Fadely (Kenyon)

Top 8:

1. Jennah Fadely (Kenyon) – 1:00.13
2. Gabriella Wei (Kenyon) – 1:01.08
3. Drue Thielking (Denison) – 1:01.31
4. Kelsey Van Eldik (Kenyon) – 1:01.34
5. Charlotte Wishnack (Williams) – 1:01.69
6. Katie Cohen (Emory) – 1:02.65
7. Nina Lamb (Springfield) – 1:02.77
8. Sarah Bernard (MIT) – 1:02.80

Jennah Fadely (Kenyon) was a bit off the national record she set earlier this year, but it was still plenty to win her third straight title in the 100 breast. The senior dominated the race from start to finish, splitting 27.98/32.15 to stop the clock in 1:00.13.

Fadely’s teammate Gabriella Wei finished 2nd (1:01.08). She was 3rd last year. Kenyon didn’t hold onto their 1-2-3 seeding from prelims, as Denison’s Drue Thielking played spoiler (1:01.31). Still, the future of Kenyon breaststroke looks bright as first-year Kelsey Van Eldik finished 4th (1:01.34).

Sarah Palmer of Bates won the B final (1:02.73).

Men’s 100 Yard Breaststroke – Finals

• Division III Record: 50.94, Andrew Wilson (Emory), 2017
• 2024 Champion: 51.83, Derek Maas (NYU)

Top 8:

1. Henri Bonnault (Emory) – 52.61
2. Elijah Venos (Denison) – 52.88
3. Zachary Erb (Bridgewater) – 53.73
4. Lincoln Hall (Cal Lutheran) – 53.87
5. Marrich Somridhivej (Bates) – 53.97
6. Caleb Einolf (Grove City) – 54.11
7. Patrick Daly (Denison) – 54.16
8. Emmett Adams (Tufts) – 54.64

Prior to this meet, Henri Bonnault was the only athlete in the field who had been sub-53 in the 100 breast. The junior from Emory won his first national title with a new personal best (52.61), but it was closer than expected.

Bonnault was out quick in the 50, turning in 24.49. His closest competitor was Elijah Venos, a senior from Denison. The two swimmers closed nearly identically, with Venos actually out-splitting Bonnault by two hundredths (28.10 to 28.12), but it wasn’t enough to compensate for the junior’s early speed. Venos got under 53 for the first time with his finish (52.88).

Bridgewater sophomore Zachary Erb rounded out the top three (53.73), leading a tightly bunched pack that included Lincoln Hall (53.87) and Marrich Somridhivej (53.97).

Evan Deedy (CMS) won the B final in 53.90, which would have placed 5th in the A.

Men’s 1-meter Diving – Finals

• Division III Record: 610.20, Israel Zavaleta (Kenyon), 2023
• 2024 Champion: 581.15, Israel Zavaleta (Kenyon)

Top 8:

1. Trent Makowiec (Geneseo) – 528.70
2. Avery Balch (Centre) – 510.35
3. Nick Fogle (Denison) – 509.25
4. Justin Toth (Centre) – 504.50
5. Conor Compton (Alfred State) – 498.50
6. Solomon Berkenwald (497.10) – Emory
7. Gellert Kish (RIT) – 476.10
8. Elijah Grabinski (St. John’s) – 463.70

Trent Makowiec made it a sweep of the boards, adding the 1-meter crown to his 3-meter win from night 1. Avery Balch (Centre) repeated as runner-up, while Denison’s Nick Fogle finished 3rd.

Women’s 800 Yard Freestyle Relay – Timed Finals

• Division III Record: 7:13.51, Emory (F. Muir, J. Wawer, M. Taylor, C. Cheng), 2018
• 2024 Champion: 7:16.20, NYU (N. Ranile, A. Wala, C. Marshall, K. McIntyre)

Top 8:

1. NYU (Ranile, Motekaitis, Oldham, McIntyre) – 7:13.02 Division III Record
2. Denison (Harris, Ferguson, Pfeufer, Brown) – 7:17.57
3. Emory (Mitchell, Swan, Boorjian, Helm) – 7:18.93
4. MIT (Turvey, Smith, Augustyn, Roberson) – 7:19.40
5. Kenyon (Caymaz, Wei, Brown, Haag) – 7:22.17
6. Williams (Robins, Roebuck, Codd, Verkleeren) – 7:23.39
7. Pomona-Pitzer (Dzieciol, Dixon, Rusk, Mello) – 7:23.87
8. Johns Hopkins (Er, Rohovit, Watson, Tuinman) – 7:23.96

NYU snapped MIT’s relay title streak and they did so in dominant fashion, swimming to a new national record in the process.

200 fly champion Nicole Ranile got things rolling for the Violets (1:50.01), though she was caught by the field into the exchange. Denison’s Emily Harris had the fastest lead off (1:48.39) as she grabbed the lead for the Big Red. Phoebe Ferguson continued the trend, holding on the lead with a 1:49.75 split. Elle Motekaitis of NYU started to close the gap (1:49.30).

The Violets started to reel in the field on the third leg as Isabel Oldham split 1:49.01. Then Kaley McIntyre hit the water. After just missing the 200 free national record last night, the junior laid down a blistering 1:44.70 split to get NYU past Emory’s national record from 2018. That is NYU’s second straight title in the event.

Denison ended up in a distant 2nd (7:17.57), followed by Emory in 3rd (7:18.93).

Men’s 800 Yard Freestyle Relay – Timed Finals

• Division III Record: 6:26.98, Emory (N. Goudie, B. Thorsen, J. Hamilton, P. Pema), 2023
• 2024 Champion: 6:29.05, Williams (A. Atherton, R. Nunez, C. Anderson, O. Schalet)

Top 8:

1. Chicago (Schwartz, Costello, Vernhes, Butler) – 6:26.98 =Division III Record
2. Denison (Hill, Distenfeld, Jones, Testin) – 6:30.41
3. Williams (Nunez, Williams, Schalet, Anderson) – 6:32.08
4. W&L (Jobe, Chapman, Byars, Nagel) – 6:32.91
5. Coast Guard (Lyman, Reice, Giguere, Twiss) – 6:33.26
6. Emory (Tupper, Becker, Pollack, Thorsen) – 6:33.50
7. NYU (Nechydyuk, Vincent, Wu, Downs) – 6:33.82
8. Tufts (Shafi, Lyubman, Sikka, Lundgren) – 6:33.96

Chicago put together an impressive performance in the 800 free relay to tie the national record. Alexander Schwartz (1:37.62), Cooper Costello (1:36.60), Sebi Vernhes (1:36.21), and John Butler (1:36.55) combined to exactly match the 6:26.98 Emory put on the board in 2023.

Denison had the lead at the 200 thanks to a strong swim from 200 free runner-up Jack Hill (1:36.01). He was followed by Tyler Distenfeld (1:36.99) who continued to lead for the Big Red. It was the third leg that the Maroons overtook the Big Red, as Gavin Jones (1:38.50) couldn’t quite keep pace. Devin Testin finished it out to give Denison the runner-up position (1:38.91).

Williams finished 3rd with the quartet of Ryan Nunez (1:37.74), Harrison Williams (1:38.72), Oliver Schalet (1:36.73), and Carter Anderson (1:38.89).

The fastest flying split of the field came from 200 free champion Colin Twiss (Coast Guard), who anchored his team to a 5th place finish (1:35.52).

Team Scores Through Day 3

Women (Top 10)

1. NYU – 368
2. MIT – 348
3. Kenyon – 315
4. Denison – 278
5. Emory – 267
6. Williams – 167
7. Chicago – 147
8. Pomona-Pitzer – 123
9. Hope – 88
10. Swarthmore – 77

Men (Top 10)

1. Denison – 298
2. Emory – 250.5
3. Chicago – 211
4. NYU – 190.5
5. Kenyon – 183
6. CMU – 157
7. Tufts – 131
8. WashU – 106
9. MIT – 103
10. Williams – 98