2015 NCAA Division II Championships: Day 2 Prelims Real-Time Recaps

The 2015 NCAA Division II Championships, a four-day event, begins Wednesday in Indianapolis, Indiana, with the dominant program in the history of the division, the Drury Panthers, seeking to repeat as both men’s and women’s champions.

As the quality of Division II swimming continues to rise, though, so does the excitement in the team battle, with the men and women from Queens University of Charlotte, especially, coming off of a Bluegrass Mountain Conference championship where they set several Division II national records. The challenge will be contending with the depth of a Drury team that has been building their dynasty for decades.

SwimSwam’s coverage will include daily real-time recaps (like this one), as well as a mid-day analysis of scoring opportunities earned in prelims.

NCAA Division II Championships – Hot Links

• March 11th-14th, 2015
• Indianapolis, Indiana (IUPUI Natatorium)
• Real-Time results
• Video link (expected to be available when meet starts)
• Championship Central
• Day 2 events: 200 free relay, 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free, 400 medley relay,  women’s 1-meter diving

Women 200 Yard Freestyle Relay

• Division II: R 1:31.64 3/13/2014 Wayne State

Drury led the way, but just by a tick, as Katya Rudenko, Tessa Tilton, Wen Xu, and Janet Yu touched in 1:32.79. Xu and Yu were second and fourth, respectively, in last night’s 50 free final. Queens’s Lillian Gordy, Alexandra Marshall, Kristin Diemer, and Shane Knight qualified second with 1:32.84, just ahead of Nova Southeastern’s Bryndis Hansen (who led off in 22.69), Emma Wahlstrom, Jordan Shows, and Emma Lawernz (1:32.93). Hansen set the D2 record last night when she won the 50 free in 22.53.

The rest of tonight’s championship final will consist of Wingate (1:33.59), UCSD (1:33.70), Tampa (1:33.70), Wayne State (1:33.94), and Lindenwood (1:34.00).

Carson-Newman suffered its second big disappointment of the meet when their relay was DQ’d. Sophomore Natalie Burnett was also disqualified in last night’s 50 free final.

Men 200 Yard Freestyle Relay

• Division II: R 1:19.00 3/13/2014 Drury

Tampa, who placed fourth last night’s 200 medley relay, came within .2 of the Division II record in the 200 free relay with the top morning qualifying time of 1:19.20 from RB Borden, Jeremy Parker, Martin Hammer, and Khalid Aldaboos. Bridgeport’s Vladislav Paskas, Ruben Gimenez, Ivan Capan, and Antonio Nunez dropped 1.6 seconds off their seed time to qualify second with 1:19.70. Queens came in at 1:20.16 for third with Nic Eriksson, Ben Taylor, Austin Sumrall, and Hayden Kosater.

Florida Southern (1:20.26), Nova Southeastern (1:20.33), Wayne State (1:20.46), and Drury (1:20.65) also made the championship final. Carson-Newman and Lindenwood tied at 1:20.88 and are thus subject to a swim-off.

Swimoff

Carson-Newman, having trailed for 175 yards, edged Lindenwood, 1:20.32-1:20.57, over the last 25 yards to qualify for the championship final.

Women 400 Yard Individual Medley

• Division II: R 4:14.00 3/10/2011 Casey Hurrell-Zitelman, Incarnate Word

NSU freshman Courtney Deveny posted the fastest time of the morning with 4:18.59. She took it out smoothly and controlled the middle 200, then brought it home in 58.2 for a very solid morning swim. Caroline Rademacher of LIU Post went 4:19.70 for the second-fastest time. Rademacher was 13th last year. Hanna Mattar of Ashland, sixth last year, went 4:20.31 in prelims to earn the right to lane 3 in tonight’s final.

Queens junior Caroline Arakelian, who came into the meet with the number one time, won her heat by a large margin with 4:20.33 and is the fourth qualifier. She will be joined by Melanie Tombers of Delta State (4:20.55), Rebecca Matthews of Lynn (4:21.66), Delta State’s Kierstin Page (4:21.81), and Drury’s Gretchen Stein (4:22.17).

Men 400 Yard Individual Medley

• Division II: R 3:47.62 3/7/2013  Piotr Jachowicz, Wayne State

Queens freshman Nick Arakelian flirted with the Division II record but came up .13 short with his morning swim of 3:47.75. Arakelian is in a class of his own, qualifying more than five seconds ahead of the rest of the field. Second was Cal Baptist’s Joshua Hanson at 3:53.02, just in front of West Chester’s Michael Oliver, who dropped 1.5 from his seed time with 3:53.64.

Felix Eigel of Lindenwood, who placed tenth last year, went 3:54.40 for the fourth-fastest morning swim. Truman State freshman Will Schanel (3:55.06), Wingate’s Ossian Arvidsson (3:55.28), Kacper Pelczynski of Drury (3:55.54), and Sven Kardol of Grand Valley (3:55.72) also made the A final.

Kardol snuck in .01 ahead of Nova Southeastern’s Marco Aldabe, who went 3:55.73 to lead the qualifiers for the consolation final.

Women 100 Yard Butterfly

• Division II: 45  3/13/2014   Hannah Peiffer, Queens (NC)    

2014 runner-up Armony Dumur of Wingate left no questions about her readiness for this year’s contest, taking control of the field early on with a 52.44 to set the NCAA record in prelims by over a second. LIU Post’s Joyce Kwok, last year’s third-place finisher, qualified second in 53.63. Carson-Newman’s Burnett, who came in with the top seed time, went 53.94 for third.

Marshall of Queens qualified fourth in 54.55, Alaska Fairbanks’ Margot Adams, who took fourth last year, went 54.60 in prelims for the fifth spot. Defending champion Hannah Peiffer of Queens (54.64), Debbi Lawrence of NMU (55.07), and Rachel Brooker of Bloomsburg (55.49) round out the championship final.

The women’s 100 fly was another race in which .01 separated the A/B finalists; Drury’s Yu went 55.50 in prelims and will contest the consolation final tonight.

Men 100 Yard Butterfly

• Division II: R 45.45 3/13/2014 Matthew Josa, Queens (NC)

Defending champion and current record-holder Matt Josa of Queens blasted a 45.61 in prelims to find himself atop the field for tonight’s final. Gianni Ferrero of Grand Valley qualified second in 46.57, while Soren Holm of Wayne State, the 2014 runner-up, was third in 46.66.

The rest of tonight’s championship final will consist of Samuel Olson of Drury (47.06), Sebastian Holmberg of Catawba (47.25), Saint Leo’s Pawel Trenda (47.29), Stanislav Kuzmin of Drury (47.32), and Allan Gutierrez of Florida Southern (47.34). Trenda dropped 2.4 seconds off his seed time to make the A final.

Women 200 Yard Freestyle

• Division II: R 1:47.10 3/10/2005 Loni Burton, CSU Bakersfield

In her second NCAA D2 record in as many days, Queens sophomore Patri Castro Ortega erased the 200 free mark with her prelims swim of 1:46.72. NSU freshman Hansen went 1:47.79 to qualify second, and Queens senior Gordy dropped 1.8 off her seed time to qualify third in 1:47.79.

NSU’s Wahlstrom (1:49.32), Queens’ McKenzie Stevens (1:49.41), Sofia Petrenko of Wingate (1:50.25), Sarah Pullen of Drury (1:50.29), and Stacie Schrecongost of Edinboro (1:50.34) also qualified for the A final.

Men 200 Yard Freestyle

• Division II: R 1:34.21 3/14/2014 Matthew Josa, Queens (NC)

Defending champion Victor Polyakov of West Chester earned lane 4 in tonight’s final with his morning swim of 1:35.57, which is nearly two seconds faster than his prelims time from last year. Simon Fraser freshman Adrian VanderHelm had the second-fastest time with 1:35.91. Thiago Sickert of NSU took 1.2 off his seed time for the third position, going 1:35.95.

Queens junior Taylor had a monster swim in prelims, dropping 2.4 seconds and coming in fourth. Jesus Marin of Florida Southern, who tied for 15th place last year, improved his seed time by 1.5 and qualified fifth. Sophomore Leif-Henning Kleuver of Wingate (1:36.13) and freshman Jakub Jonczyk of Lindenwood (1:36.61) were sixth and seventh.

Another swimoff will take place to determine the occupant of lane 8 in tonight’s final: both Keith Sponsler of Missouri S&T and Wingate freshman Jerome Heidrich went 1:36.97 in prelims.

Swimoff

Missouri S&T’s Sponsler earned a bid into the championship final with a 1:36.90-1:37.78 victory over the freshman from Wingate, Heidrich.

Women 400 Yard Medley Relay

• Division II: 3:39.29  3/13/2014   Drury

Wingate improved on their seed time by 2.6 seconds and notched the top qualifying time in the women’s 400 medley relay with 3:41.11 from Rita Koryukova, Olga Kosheleva, Dumur, and Sofia. Dumur, who had set the NCAA record in the 100 fly earlier with 52.44, split a 52.14. Drury’s Katya Rudenko, Lucie Jolly, Vera Johansson, and Xu placed second with 3:42.84, ahead of Queens’ 3:43.23 from Peiffer, Arakelian, Castro Ortega, and Diemer.

LIU Post (3:43.40), Delta State (3:46.20), Simon Fraser (3:46.53), Wayne State (3:46.72), and Nova Southeastern (3:47.10) also made the championship final.

The Cal Baptist quartet of Mary Hanson, Alena Rumiantceva, Tina Tchernyschev, and Patricia Hapsari, who had swum the fastest relay, were DQ’d.

Men 400 Yard Medley Relay

• Division II: R 3:11.10 Queens (NC)

With two of the three relays that came to the wall under meet record time being DQ’d, the men’s championship final will look a bit like Last Man Standing. The fastest of the three, Queens (John Suther, Eriksson, Josa, and Zach Phelps), established a new meet mark of 3:09.72, but neither NSU nor Lindenwood (who had been second and third, both in the 3:10s) will get a second chance at the Queens record tonight.

Drury will set up in lane 5, having touched at 3:11.75 with Jordi Joan Montseny Diez, Pelczynski, Kuzmin, and Olson. Wayne State’s Juan David Molina Perez, Piotr Jachowicz, Holm, and Joshua Schacht (3:13.63) qualified third.

The rest of the championship final will consist of Bridgeport (3:13.93), Florida Southern (3:14.85), Delta State (3:14.98), Grand Valley (3:15.55), and Tampa (3:17.06).

Only four teams are left in the consolation final: Lewis, Wingate, Cal Baptist, and UCSD. West Chester was also disqualified.