2018 NCAA Division III Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships
- Dates: Wednesday, March 21 – Saturday, March 24
- Swimming: prelims 10am, finals 6pm
- Location: IU Natatorium, Indianapolis, IN (Eastern Time Zone)
- Defending Champions: Emory (results)
- Psych Sheet
- Video
- Live Results
- Championship Central
Men’s 100 Yard Freestyle – Prelims
- NCAA Record: 43.16 3/24/2012 Zach Turk, Kenyon
Emory senior Oliver Smith blew away his previous personal best and became the first Division III swimmer to break 43 seconds in the 100 free in heats on Saturday morning. Smith destroyed the field in the final heat of morning prelims, coming to the wall in 42.98 with a body-length lead over the field. He lowered his own personal best by .56 and broke the NCAA Division III Record, set by Kenyon’s Zach Turk in 2012, by .18.
This is the second of Turk’s records that Smith has rewritten this weekend; he also broke the NCAA Division III Record in the 50 free in prelims on Thursday.
Before Saturday morning, Smith had only broken 44 three times in his career. His ten best performances are:
- 42.98 – 3/24/2017 NCAA DIII Championships
- 43.54 – 3/17/2017 NCAA DIII Championships
- 43.78 – 3/17/2017 NCAA DIII Championships
- 43.90 – 12/1/2017 2017 OH Miami University Invite
- 44.13 – 12/1/2017 2017 OH Miami University Invite
- 44.34 – 12/2/2016 2016 OH Miami University Invite
- 44.43 – 3/18/2016 NCAA DIII Championships
- 44.53 – 2/16/2018 2018 UAA Championships
- 44.60 – 2/16/2018 2018 UAA Championships
- 44.72 – 12/2/2016 2016 OH Miami University Invite
Smith went his previous best time of 43.54 in prelims at 2017 NCAA Division III Championships, dropping .80 en route to posting the fastest time of the morning. He ended up third in finals with 43.78.
This time, he was out much faster and still able to hang on:
| 2018 NCAAs prelims | 2017 NCAAs prelims | |
| 50 | 20.05 | 20.71 |
| 100 | 42.98 (22.93) | 43.54 (22.83) |
Forgot to comment this in the madness of D1 nationals, but Emory’s record book is pretty damn impressive at this point. 19.37/42.92/1:37.08/4:21/15:12 in free, 47.6/1:46.6 back, 50.9 / 1:50.8 breast, 48.1 / 1:45.4 fly, 1:44.18 / 3:52 IM. And some killer relay records in everything except the 8free relay. Overall their record book would beat a lot of mid-lower tier D1 teams. Just compared it to Cornell, for example, and Emory’s records were faster in a little over half of cases.
Lol @ nearly a 3-second split differential qualifying as “hanging on.” Still an awesome swim.