If you’re a new college swimming fan, you might have thought that the weekend before the majority of the Power 4 Division I midseason invites would be a quiet one. And while it’s true that many of the Power 4 teams were off in preparation for this week’s invites make no mistake, there’s always something going on in the world of college swimming.
Record Books Rewritten At SIU Invite
One midseason invitational is already in the books, as the A3 Performance Invite ran from Nov. 14-16. SIU junior Olivia Herron was sensational. She’d already let us know she was on form this season with an MVC conference record during a dual meet, but she took it to the next level this past weekend.
Herron crushed the 200 breaststroke conference record she hit earlier this season with a 2:09.63. It’s her first swim under the 2:10 mark—her previous record stood at 2:11.13, marking a 1.5-second drop for Herron. She also set SIU program records in the 100 breast (1:00.83), and 200 IM (1:57.21).
This is the second year in a row that we’ve seen a SIU women breakout at their midseason invite. Last year, it was backstroker Celia Pulido, who went on to score at the 2024 NCAA Championships in the 100 and 200 backstrokes. Pulido helped the Saluki women take down their 200-medley relay program record on the meet’s opening day and swept the backstrokes. SIU coaches say that her focus will be on the Purdue Invite this coming weekend, so look out for more fireworks from the Salukis.
Men’s swimming has returned to the Missouri Valley Conference for the first time since 2003 and the athletes have wasted no time rewriting the record book. Here’s all the records the SIU men broke at the meet:
- 50 freestyle: Alex Santiago, 19.65
- 200 IM: Benedek Andor, 1:46.77
- 200 freestyle relay: Andor, Santiago, Huggins, Csuvarszki, 1:19.56
- 400 IM: Henrique Pacheco, 3:54.67
- 100 fly: Benedek Andor, 47.84
- 100 backstroke: Willem Huggins, 47.33
- 200 medley relay: Huggins, Faleiros, Lanuza, Santiago, 1:27.00
- 200 backstroke: Willem Huggins, 1:44.85
- 100 freestyle: Alex Santiago, 43.19
- 200 breaststroke: Henrique Pacheco, 1:58.60
- 400 freestyle relay: Santiago, Tery, Andor, Huggins, 2:54.59
D3 Corner
Denison freshman Nick Hensel swam his second 50 freestyle personal best in as many meets as Denison faced Oberlin last Saturday. The Denison men shot up the CSCAA DIII rankings to third after beating their historic rivals Kenyon last weekend. There, Hensel fired off a 20.54 leading off the relay for a new personal best.
He torched that mark this weekend by swimming a 20.29, again leading off a relay. His lifetime best before arriving at Denison came from a relay lead-off as well and stood at 20.56, meaning Hensel has already chopped .27 seconds off his best this season. His 20.29 is an NCAA ‘B’ cut time and now ranks him second overall this season in DIII, sandwiched between Casey Jacobs and Tobe Obochi. The three are separated by only two-hundredths of a second.
On the women’s side, Quinn Brown and Emily Harris took over as the top two women’s 200 freestylers in Division III this year. They surpassed Karen Zhao’s 1:50.34 from last weekend, swimming 1:48.74 and 1:49.50, respectively. Brown’s 1:48.74 is a personal best for her by over a second.
The NESCACs are getting their seasons underway and we’ve got a couple of notable decisions from New England to discuss. First, the Colby women defeated Amherst for the first time in program history. The Mules started strong, winning three of the first four events. Amherst battled back and the meet was a back-and-forth affair over the second half of the meet. Ultimately, it came down to the final relay, where Colby needed to win and have their ‘B’ relay place no worse than third to claim the meet. Their relays placed first and third, pulling off the upset over a ranked Amherst squad, 151.5-147.5
Fresh off an undefeated 2023-24 regular season, the Williams women opened their new season with a meet against Springfield and Wesleyan. The Ephs swept the meet, extending their dual meet streak to 137 in Ally Clark’s first official meet as interim head coach while Steven Kuster takes a sabbatical this term.
Ivy League Freshmen Making Their Mark
As Ivy League competition heats up, one of the big takeaways from the early part of the season has been how impressive the freshmen have been. Penn freshman Kayla Fu and Princeton freshman Patrick Dinu have already set program records this season; Fu swam 53.19 to take down the Quakers’ 100 fly record this weekend while Dinu set a 100 free school record (42.51) and 100 breast freshman record (53.49) in his first NCAA yards meet earlier this month.
But beyond record-setting performances, many freshmen have stepped up and contributed to their teams. Hungarian freshman Marton Nagy won three events and swam three PBs in Brown’s sweep of Penn and Bryant. Columbia’s Gian Santos dropped time in multiple events last weekend as the Lions faced Princeton. Penn freshmen including Jeffrey Hou, Amy Qin, and Maggie Hu have added their strength behind Fu’s record-setting performance. Gabi Augustyn (Harvard), Logan Noguchi (Princeton), Christopher Zhang (Princeton), Manoli Mountantonakis (Yale), Jake Wang (Yale), and Adriano Arioti (Harvard) have contributed to their school’s dual meet wins, with Arioti going three-for-three in his official collegiate debut last weekend.
On some level, the conference-wide success the class is having is unsurprising, at least on the men’s side, since multiple ranked recruits in the class committed to Ivy League universities. But the adjustment to university isn’t always easy, and it can take time for swimmers to figure out the transition from high school or even to the United States. It’s still early, but seeing so many first years respond quickly and well to the NCAA only makes February’s Ivy League Championships look more exciting.
While we’re hanging with the Ancient Eight, it’s worth noting that Dartmouth earned their first conference dual meet victory since their team was reinstated in 2021 with the women’s win over Cornell this weekend. Also, Princeton junior Mitchell Schott is ranked third in all of Division I in the 400 IM after his 3:42.58 swim against Brown and Dartmouth.
