2023 CAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Wednesday, February 22 – Saturday, February 25, 2023
- Hampton Aquaplex, Hampton, VA
- Defending Champions:
- Women: William & Mary (1x)
- Men: UNCW (1x)
- Live Results
- Live Video
- Championship Central
- Psych Sheets
The 2023 CAA Swimming & Diving Championship got underway tonight with a couple of new looks. Two new teams are competing this year, with the addition of Monmouth and Stony Brook (women only). The meet is also being held in a new location, the Hampton Aquaplex, which opened late last year.
It didn’t long for records to go down, as the William & Mary women knocked the better part of a second off of the meet and conference records with a 1:38.53 in the 200 medley relay. Kat Vanbourgondien led off in 25.42. Ellie Scherer had the fastest breast split in the field with a 27.62, Sophia Heilen split 23.56 on fly, and Katie Stevenson brought it home in 21.93.
The Tribe won by over a second, but there was a tight battle for 2nd behind them. Towson got off to a fast start with a 24.93 leadoff from Ally Frame, and they maintained that lead into the anchor leg. But UNCW’s Sarah Olson threw down a 21.84, the fastest free split in the field, to push pass Towson and Northeastern, to touch in 1:39.62. Towson (1:39.62) and Northwestern (1:39.95) finished 3rd and 4th.
Splits don’t appear to be appearing correctly for the 800 free relay, but Delaware won in 7:12.05, followed by UNCW (7:15.17) and W&M (7:15.52).
Meet and conference records also went down on the men’s side, with a pair of teams recording 22-mid breaststroke splits while getting under the previous records in the 200 medley relay.
Delaware’s Gavin Currie staked an early lead with a 21.49 leadoff leg, then Toni Sabev blasted a 22.63 breast split. His brother Simeon Sabev split 21.19 on fly, before freshman Matvei Namakonov anchored in 19.61. The combined time of 1:24.92 knocked six-tenths of a second off of the previous record of 1:25.52, set by William & Mary in 2020.
Towson was also under the previous meet record at 1:25.17 thanks largely to a 22.54 breast split from Brian Benzing. The CAA has had it moments as a strong mid-major conference, but it’s still amazing that the conference had two of the fastest breaststroke splits ever tonight. We got a look at some race video, and while it’s tough to tell from the angle and clarity, it appears both splits were recorded accurately.
UNCW took 3rd in 1:25.69, highlighted by a 20.13 fly leg from Henderson Louviere.
The Seahawks won the 800 free in 6:23.97, shattering the previous meet record of 6:26.86, again set by W&M in 2020. Towson took 2nd in 6:27.66, while Drexel and Delaware tied at 6:33.96.
In between the relays, UNCW swept the top two spots in men’s 1m diving event, as Ethan Badrian (343.16) and Nicholas Newis (309.50) finished 1st and 2nd.
Scores Through Day 1
Women:
- William & Mary – 72
- Delaware/UNCW – 68
- (tie)
- Northeastern – 60
- Towson – 58
- Drexel – 54
- Monmouth/Stony Brook – 46
- (tie)
Men:
- UNCW – 124
- Towson – 101
- Delaware – 98
- Drexel – 94
- William & Mary – 56
- Monmouth – 52
Time to transfer to a major d1 team
Question is if they can put up a good 100
I mean he went 1:35.0 200 free..
I mean Benzing was 51 last year and Sabev was 52
Live results embarrassing. Not live results. Link to a bad view of a PDF. Doesn’t have the times on the same part of the page. It’s the SHORT version of results to a PDF. Then you go to the 800 FR Relay and the SPLITS are for the first swimmer by 50, I think. Thanks for crap. Fix it.
Agreed, the stats for this meet are abysmal. The televised coverage is just as poor. They don’t show any graphics and don’t even show the scoreboard after each race. If you want to know someone’s time, you need to hope that the announcers mention it. Or, you need to wait 20 minutes for the results to be published to the garbage website.
wow I thought it was just the breaststroke, UNCW 8FR dropping 8 seconds from last year?? Some incredibly fast swimming out of the whole conference. Shaping up to be one of the fastest mid-major conferences this year
Crazy Fast times! Need to get a swim swam correspondent down there with a tape measure for that pool
If it was at Liberty’s pool, then definitely a yes.
I’ll be honest, I was a little skeptical at first. Not least because it is a newer pool, and I recall Liberty’s pool having some timing issues early on. And just 45 minutes away from Hampton, a few high school national records were rescinded after someone realized that the pool in which VHSL held state championships was actually short. But like we said, it looks like these times were legit. We should be in store for an awesome rest of the meet.
Have there been any other crazy meets at this pool, or is this the first bigger meet?
Two of the VA public school state championship meets were there last weekend, but I think this is the first big college meet there.
Crazy how much faster that session was comparing to last year, maybe christiansburg pool is just slow