With all the best competition in DIII spread out, it makes a lot of sense to face off against tough DI opponents like Towson. The unbeaten Blue Jay women suffered their first defeat of the season at the Tigers’ paws, falling 193-91 while the Tigers enjoyed their first undefeated dual meet season since 1972 when the program debuted. The Jay men were defeated 191-71 by Towson.
Ana Bogdanovski picked up the sole win for the Jays’ women in the 100 freestyle. Andrew Greenhalgh was responsible for two event wins for the men in the 1000 and 500 freestyles, and Evan Holder claimed wins in the 200 freestyle and 200 IM.
Bogdanovski holds top times in three individual events in Division III. She is the fastest (by a lot) in the 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle, and 200 freestyle events. (She has earned A cuts in the 100 and 200. There are only three other athletes in the division this year who have done so. All of them are men.)
In the 100 freestyle she posted a 51.66 to win by just under three tenths. That time would have put her as the 10 fastest 100 freestyler in DIII and would have earned her a spot in the consolation final (and 14th place) at last year’s NCAAs. The 1:51.11 Bogdanovski posted (coming up just short of victory by .04) in the 200 freestyle is the seventh fastest in the division so far this year, and would have been .04 seconds shy of making it back for the A final at NCAAs last year.
Greenhalgh’s 9:17.99 is the second-fastest time in JHU’s history (the fastest being the 9:13.13 split by Greenhalgh himself in the mile last year at NCAAs). That time skips him right to the top of the DIII 1000 swimmers (keeping in mind that the 1000 is not an event contested at the NCAA championship) by about eight seconds. Greenhalgh’s 500 he led from start to finish, clocking in at 4:33.99 a dual meet time that would have put him just shy of top 16 in the Division. (Except that he already has DIII’s best time at a 4:26.08.)
Holder’s 1:40.65 was good enough for a win in the 200 freestyle, and would have also been just outside the top 16 mark…if he wasn’t already the second fastest ranked 200 freestyler in DIII currently. In the 200 IM Holder casually dropped a 1:53.08, almost four and a half seconds ahead of his competition, outsplitting everyone on every single leg of the race. His breaststroke was almost three seconds faster in a 50 than the next fastest split.
JHU will be a team to watch at NCAAs this year, and probably for many years to come. After exploding onto the national scene in a big way last year (sweeping all five relays on the women’s side and breaking into the top four for the first time in program history), it’s hard to imagine them fazing out anytime soon. Looking down the road a ways, it’s a distinct possibility to imagine the Jays as the next big swimming superpower in Division III, and perhaps challenging – and defeating – Emory, Kenyon and Denison at some point on the national level in the not-so-distant future.
For complete meet results, click here.
The Jays will be back in the pool Wednesday, January 28th in Annapolis taking on the Navy Midshipmen at Lejeune Hall.
