Division II Weekly Recap: Queens Reigns Supreme

Photo Courtesy: Queens Athletics

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The last October weekend of the year featured a few of the top ten Division II teams in action as (#1/2) Queens had an easy win over conference rival (#8/5) Wingate in a unique meet setup. The two teams swam each other, but in different locations. The Wingate women hosted their in-state conference rival Queens on Friday night in a women’s only meet. The Royals from Queens won that matchup 181-64.

On Saturday, Queens hosted the Wingate men in a men’s only meet. The coaches wanted it this way as a means of getting both campuses involved in the rivalry meet. The Queens men won that matchup as well 166-79.

Francesca Bains was one of the stars of the day with her win in the 1000 at 10:16.80, to rank second in the Division II national rankings in that event. Bains is behind Nova Southeast’s Emma Sundstedt (10:13.44) in Division II swimming rankings.

Queens’ Sarah Atkinson won the 200 breast to put up the second fastest time in the country this year at 2:18.75. Atkinson is just a freshman and is sitting behind Drury stud Bailee Nunn in the national rankings as both of those girls are the only ones who have been 2:18 in Division II this season.

Junior Josephina Lorda also had a big day with a win in the 200 fly (2:04.39) and the 200 free (1:52.97). Her 200 fly time puts her third in the national rankings as her teammate McKenzie Stevens is first. Stevens only swam one individual event against Wingate and that was the 200 free where she placed third (1:55.71).

Wingate was highlighted by junior Ebba Stillman who won the 100 fly (56.27) and was second in the 200 fly (2:05.79). Those are her season best times as she is fifth nationally in both those events.

The Drury men and women dropped their duel meets with Missouri State as the women fell 135-107 and the men 144-87.

A few bright spots came from Bailee Nunn as she won the 200 IM (2:01.20), the 200 fly (2:02.51) and the 200 breast (2:18.86). Nunn’s 200 IM was the most impressive as she sky-rocketed to the number one time in Division II with that swim. She is well ahead of second place Maggie Melhorn (2:06.12) of Carson Newman. Nunn also ranks second in the 200 fly behind the aforementioned Stevens. Her 200 breast didn’t improve on her 2:18.32 that already leads the nation from the Division II Fall Showcase last week.

The Drury men were highlighted by Joan Casanovas who won the 500 at 4:33.99. He is still leading Division II in the event with his 4:31.07 from last week.

Both teams from Drury swam a little off against Missouri State, but the women did win both relays and the men won the final 400 free relay with the second fastest time in the nation this year. Pavel Semochkin, Casanovas, Aitor Martinez and Rodrigo Caceres swam a 3:02.09 to sit just behind Queens (3:01.54) in the national rankings. Queens did that in their win over Wingate on Saturday.

In fact, Queens and Wingate only swam the 400 free relay as they led off the meet with the 100 back, instead of a usual medley relay. Queens swam the fastest 400 free relay in the country with Marius Kusch, Alen Mosic, Dmytro Sydorchenko and Ben Mayes.

The Royals continued their strong season with Kusch being the star on Saturday. Kusch swam a 46.95 100 fly to go past teammate Paul Pijulet in the national rankings. Pijulet had the top spot from his 47.94 last weekend. Kusch also won the 200 fly with an ironically identical time of 1:46.95 as he is well ahead of second place Magnus Poulsen (1:50.07) of Nova Southeast. To end his dominating day, Kusch led off the 400 free relay with a 44.37, the fastest time in the nation in Division II this season.

Queens also had dominating performances from Nick Arakelian in the 200 IM (1:49.36) as he leads the national rankings ahead of Indianapolis’ Rodrigo Codo Berti (1:51.86). Arakelian also won the 100 breast (55.27) as he is second nationally in that event. Paul Pijulet put up the nation’s quickest 100 back time with a 48.19 just ahead of Delta State’s Giulio Brugnoni (48.53) as the latter swam that against Georgia Tech this weekend. Brugnoni also swam a 48.99 in the 100 fly to rank fourth in Division II.

Speaking of Delta State, Lucia Martelli swam the fastest 100 fly in the nation this past weekend at 55.20 to continue her strong freshman campaign. Martelli also swam the 200 fly with a 2:06.19.

Other notable performances on the weekend came from UC San Diego’s Tenny Chong in the 200 back (1:50.70), Fresno Pacific’s Maksim Shcherbakov in both breast events (56.53, 2:03.08), and Aleksei Averchenko in the 100 fly (49.45) and Wingate’s Sebastian Holmberg in the 200 IM (1:52.65).

Other of note performances for the women came from Fresno Pacific’s Laura Fornshell in the 200 free (1:52.77) and 500 free (4:58.78). Fornshell is the second swimmer in Division II to break five minutes in the 500 this season. UC San Diego’s Kaitlyn Richey in the 1000 (10:27.45) and Rachel Taylor in the 200 breast (2:19.53), LIU Post’s Laura Bendfeldt in the 100 back (57.53) and Karis Fuller in the 200 back (2:04.57), Fresno Pacific’s Daria Belova in the 100 fly (55.76) and Bavindeep Basra in the 400 IM (4:26.28), and CSU East Bay’s Morgan McClure in the 200 IM (2:06.47) also had noteworthy swims this past weekend.

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