Queens sophomore Matt Josa is a perfect 3-for-3 in individual NCAA Division II records so far this week at D-II Nationals, and his last one came by the narrowest of margins.
Josa went 1:42.96 to just barely sneak under the old 200 fly record of 1:42.99 Friday night. That came courtesy of a gutsy front half in which Josa went out in 48.08 and broke away from the field by more than a second.
His splits dropped a bit from the second 50 to the third, as Josa went from 25.5 to 26.7. But the big dropoff came in the final laps, where Josa faded to 28.18.
Despite that rough finish, Josa still held on for his third NCAA Division II record of the week, and if he can re-break his own 200 back mark tomorrow, he’ll be all but a lock for the Swimmer of the Meet award. He previously broke the national 200 IM and 100 fly records at this year’s meet.
Josa’s swimming is well appreciated by his Queens teammates: the Royals currently lead Drury by just 8 points in a thrilling back-and-forth showdown that will conclude Saturday night in Indianapolis.
Seems he isn’t that used to swimming the 200 fly haha, really went for it! Probably could have been 1:41 with a better race strategy.
Josa swam the race dry! Meaning he never warmed up! He was throwing up before he raced and gutted it out without warming up. After the race he was puking in the gutter. Guttiest swim I have seen in a long time. If he was properly warmed up I think he would be knocking on the door to break 1:40!
With D1 swimming being limited to so relatively few schools (many of which are already hard to get into), I wonder if the depth and quality will continue to grow at D2 schools.
Except that virtually all D2 schools are private, making them more expensive. That was a problem I ran into. Also, I just checked and it seems that the number of D1 and D3 schools with swimming is pretty similar and there are significantly fewer D2 schools with swimming than D1 or D3. Now, I didn’t check male and female or anything, that’s just either.
So he’s swum the 100/200 fly and the 200IM and he’s going to also swim the 200 back? Can you swim more than three individual events in DII?
DaRomo – yes, in D2 swimmers can do 4 individuals and 3 relays.