Bates Breaks Men’s 400 Medley NCAA DIII Record in 3:08.43, Somridhivej Splits 50.41 Breast Leg

2026 NCAA DIII Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships

• March 18-21, 2026
• Location: IU Natatorium, Indianapolis, IN
• Defending Champs: MIT women (1x) & Denison men (1x)
• Psych Sheet
• Live Video
• Live Results
• Live Recaps:
  • Prelims: Day 1
  • Finals: Day 1

Men’s 400 Medley Relay

• NCAA Division III Record: 3:09.78 – Kenyon (2024)

Top 8:

1. Bates- 3:08.43 *NCAA DIII Record
2. Chicago- 3:09.94
3. Emory- 3:11.55
4. NYU- 3:11.75
5. Kenyon- 3:12.41
6. Denison- 3:13.31
7. TCNJ- 3:13.40
8. Rhodes- 3:17.12

In the final men’s event of the first day of the 2026 NCAA Division III Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships, the Bates College Bobcats smashed the NCAA Division III record in the 400 medley relay in 3:08.43, downing the previous record time set back in 2024 by Kenyon in 3:09.78.

The quartet of Timothy Johnson (48.32), Marrich Somridhivej (50.41), Nate Oppenheim (47.48), and Max Cory (42.22) came together to clinch the national title and break the record that they nearly achieved in the prelims, swimming just 15 hundredths off the record in 3:09.93.

This relay victory marks the first relay national championship title in program history.

Race Video Courtesy of Bates College:

Highlighting the relay performance was Marrich Somridhivej, who clocked a mind-boggling 50.41 breaststroke split, the 2nd-fastest ever in Division III history, only trailing Andrew Wilson (50.27) for the fastest DIII split ever. In fact, that split is so fast that it would have been the 3rd fastest split at the 2025 Men’s NCAA Division 1 Championships last season, behind only Florida’s Julian Smith (48.85) and Louisville’s Denis Petrashov (50.24).

Somridhivej will race the individual 100 breaststroke later in this meet, and may have just put Wilson’s DIII record of 50.94 (2017) on notice.

Splits Comparison (New v. Former NCAA DIII 400 Medley Relay Records):

The clearest discrepancy between the two relays was the breaststroke splits, as Somridhivej was nearly three seconds faster than Aleksa Dobric was in 2024, aside from that, and Cory being two tenths faster than Djordje Dragojlovic (who won the 50 free earlier tonight in 19.42), the rest of the relay was quite a bit slower than that 2024 Kenyon team, immediately facing a more than a second disadvantage heading into the breaststroke.