Maya DiRado Leads Way in CollegeSwimming.com National Swimmers of the Week

CARTHAGE, Wisconsin, November 27. THIS week, CollegeSwimming.com selected the top swimmers in the nation out of the NCAA collegiate ranks with Stanford’s Maya DiRado and Florida’s Sebastian Rousseau claiming the top DI performances.

Division I Women
Stanford University Senior Swimmer Maya DiRado (Santa Rosa, CA) turned in three NCAA A-cut qualifying times at the Art Adamson Invitational, earning herself the Counsilman Hunsaker CollegeSwimming.com Women’s Division I swimmer of the week. DiRado’s A-times came in the 200 fly (1:54.47, 2nd overall), 200 IM (1:53.50, 1st overall) and 400 IM (4:00.88, 1st overall). The Santa Rosa, Calif. native, clocked faster times in both of the IM races compared to last year’s NCAA meet. Last March, she was third in the 200 IM (1:53.86) and second in the 400 IM (4:01.02) in Indianapolis. The 200 fly and 200 IM finishes are the best of the 15-time All American’s Stanford career and were good enough for 4th and 1st fastest times in the NCAA this year so far, her 400 IM time was also good enough for the second fastest time in the NCAA this year. DiRado had outstanding splits in Stanford’s winning 400 free (48.25), 400 medley (51.90 back, 5th fastest in NCAA DI), and 800 free (1:43.63) relays to help Stanford to a second place finish overall.

Division I Men
Red-shirt Senior Sebastian Rousseau (Cape Town, South Africa) strung together a number of impressive performances at the Ohio State Buckeye Invitational for the University of Florida Gators. Rousseau swam two individual ‘A’ cuts, contributed to two relay ‘A’ cuts and set three meet records at the Ohio State Invite. In two individual wins, he registered the nation’s top 200 butterfly in a meet record and NCAA ‘A’ cut time of 1:42.88. Rousseau also posted the nation’s second fastest 400 individual medley mark in a meet record time of 3:41.26. The South Africa native also led off the nation’s fastest 800 free relay and had the nation’s second best 200 free time of 1:34.19 in the process. He had another impressive split in the 400 free relay swimming the third leg in 42.95. His efforts have earned him both the Counsilman Hunsaker CollegeSwimming.com Men’s Division I swimmer of the week, and the SEC Male co-swimmer of the week.

Division II Women
The Division II Counsilman Hunsaker CollegeSwimming.com female swimmer of the week is UC San Diego Senior Anji Shakya (Davis, CA). Shakya was UCSD’s top female swimmer at the annual Arena Invitational. The defending NCAA Division II 200 freestyle champion made it to championship finals in three events, placing sixth in the 500 free (4:56.46) and 200 back (2:02.83) and eighth in the 200 free (1:51.49). Her prelim time of 4:50.30 in the 500 free Thursday, the fastest of the morning and third fastest overall, earned her automatic qualification into the 2014 NCAA Championships in Ohio and is the fastest time in Division II by over 5 seconds so far this season. Additionally her morning swim of the 200 free (1:50.00) was the top time posted in Division II so far this year. Anji also posted the 7th fastest time in Division II in the 100 back (57.38), tied for the 9th best time in the 100 free (51.88) and her 200 back time was good enough for the 4th fastest time. Shakya also anchored the fourth-place 200 free relay (1:33.72), fifth-place 400 free (3:25.58) and seventh-place 400 medley (3:51.38) and 800 free (7:34.98) relays. Every one of her swims was at least a B cut.

Division II Men
Victor Polyakov, a first year sophomore at West ChesterUniversity is the Counsilman Hunsaker CollegeSwimming.com swimmer of the week for his record breaking performances this past weekend. The international student from Toganrog, Russia won three individual events, helped West Chester University to three relay wins and set a new national record in the 500-yard freestyle, all while establishing a new conference mark with his leadoff time in the 800 free relay at the Frank Elm Invite at Rutgers University. That relay team posted a new PSAC record during competition with a time of 6:37.63. Victor also posted an NCAA ‘A’ cut time in the 1650 free to earn an automatic berth in the NCAA Championships next March. Polyakov’s time of 4 minutes, 20.26 seconds in the 500 free was 12 seconds faster than second place and set a new NCAA record in that event. The time is currently first in Division II by more than 7 seconds. He followed that up with a freestyle split of 44.62 in the 400 medley relay. He won the 200 free in 1:39.21and then led off the 800 free relay on Saturday and posted a time of 1:36.86 that was a new conference mark in the 200 free and the fastest time in Division II by over a second. He also won the 1650 free in an NCAA ‘A’ cut time of 15:19.23 (the fastest time in Division II this year by nearly 20 seconds over team mate Jared Haley), while posting a second place finish in the 100 free (45.29) and leading off the 400 free relay in a time of 45.24 which is the second fastest time in Division II so far this year.

Division III Women
Johns Hopkins University Junior swimmer Ana Bogdanovski (Fanwood, NJ) is the Counsilman Hunsaker CollegeSwimming.com Division III women’s swimmer of the week after dominating the competition at the Gettysburg Invitational this past weekend. Ana won three individual events while posting the top times in Division III in all three events. She tied her own pool record in the 50 free (23.89), won the 100 free (50.99), and the set a new pool record while winning the 200 free (1:51.78). She was also a part of the winning 400 free relay (3:30.70), 800 free relay (7:46.47), 200 free relay (1:36.92) and 400 medley relay (3:59.09).

Division III Men
Gettysburg College Junior swimmer Jason Potter is the Counsilman Hunsaker CollegeSwimming.com Division III Men’s swimmer of the week. Jason is one of several Gettysburg swimmers to post top times in Division III this year. He won three events, the 50 free (20.74), the 100 free (44.83), and 200 free (1:40.85), the latter two being the fastest times in Division III so far this year while his 50 time was the second fastest. Jason also teamed up with Stuart Cubbison, Ashton Leyens, and Mike Harmon (currently the top ranked 200 backstroker in DIII) to post the fastest Division III relay times so far this year in the 200 and 400 free relays (1:23.00/ 3:01.89), while the foursome of Mike Harmon, Ashton Leyens, Jason Potter, and Sean Staerk posted the fastest 800 free relay (6:50.40). Potter was also a part of a 200 yard medley relay that posted a top 10 time.

The above article is a press release submitted to Swimming World Magazine. It has been posted in its entirety without editing. Swimming World offers all outlets the chance to reach our audience by contacting us at Newsmaster@swimmingworldmagazine.com. However, Swimming World reserves the right to choose what material is posted.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x