2026 NESCAC Men’s Swimming & Diving Championships
- February 19-22, 2026
- Colby College, Waterville, Maine
- Short Course Yards (25 yards), Prelims/Finals
- Championship Central
- Live Results
With a winter storm bearing down, it was a record breaking day for the Bates College men on Saturday in Maine.
The relay of Tim Johnson, Marrich Somridhivej, Nate Oppenheim, and Maximillian Cory opened up the day with a 1:25.57 in the 200 medley relay, That knocked almost three tenths off the old NCAA Division III Record in the event.
The old mark of 1:25.85 was set by Emory at the 2023 NCAA Championship meet.
Splits Comparison
| Emory | Bates College | Bates College | |
| Old D3 Record | New D3 Record |
2025 D3 Championships
|
|
| Backstroke | Ryan Soh – 21.90 | Johnson – 22.46 | Johnson – 22.96 |
| Breaststroke | Jake Meyer – 23.54 | Somridhivej – 22.95 |
Somridhivej – 24.05
|
| Butterfly | Jeff Echols – 21.15 | Oppenheim – 21.21 |
Oppenheim – 21.67
|
| Free | Colin Lafave – 19.26 | Cory – 18.95 | Cory – 19.15 |
| Total Time | 1:25.85 | 1:25.57 | 1:27.83 |
What makes this Bates relay so remarkable is that they are not a traditional D3 superpower – the team finished 13th at last year’s NCAA D3 Championships and in this 200 medley relay, they finished just 7th.
While all four swimmers got faster since NCAAs last year, it was Somridhivej who really stood out. In addition to his 22.95 relay split, on Saturday he also set a new NESCAC Record in the 100 breaststroke final, finishing in 51.85. That makes him the third-fastest D3 breaststroker in history behind only Olympic gold medalist Andrew Wilson of Emory (50.94) and D1 transfer Derek Maas of NYU (51.83).
Bates set four Meet Records on Friday and won four conference titles.
While Bates had the highlight moments on Saturday, deeper teams from Tufts and Williams are battling for the team title, while Bates sits in 5th place after three days of competition.
Team Standings After Saturday
- Tufts University — 1198
- Williams College — 1168
- Amherst College — 894
- Connecticut College — 796
- Bates College — 788
- Hamilton College — 596.5
- Middlebury College — 566
- Bowdoin College — 556.5
- Colby College — 528
- Trinity College — 320
- Wesleyan University — 187
I know the article on Carrick Shea is just loading. He’s a complete UNIT and he’s gonna mop up on D3.
I remember my senior year at NESCACs (2011) was the first year Bates started making waves by jumping up the rankings. I’m so happy to see how much the program has grown in the last 15 years.
Relay featuring a man named Oppenheim dropping a bomb at a conference meet
Willing to bet they call him Oppenheimer in practice.
He’s Oppy
Those guys are such studs 😍
you can say that again i’m friends with a few
Great coverage, huge accomplishment for Bates to snag a relay record
Are 2 studs, 2 nation leading relays and a few other swimmers with top 10 times in the nation enough to challenge for a team top 10 at NCs?
Anyway would love to see Somridhivej swim at summer nationals this year just to see what he could do LCM.
Definitely, they seem to be on track for 4 a-final relays and 1 b-final relay, which is probably 100+ points. Then I wouldn’t be surprised if they get 50 individual points, which comfortably would put them in top 10 contention.
Some of these sc kings could probably swim LC like kings as well. Hopefully, he’ll get the chance to