Division III Championship Preview: The SCIAC

Championship season is officially in full swing. With NCAA Division III teams competing in over 30 different conference championship meets, it’s tough to keep track of them all, but Swimming World will offer a preview of the action at the country’s fastest and deepest meets. Here’s a glimpse at what to expect at the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championships.

Teams: Caltech, Cal Lutheran, Chapman, C-M-S, La Verne, Occidental, Pomona-Pitzer, Redlands, Whittier

Location: Brenda Villa Aquatic Center

Dates: February 21-24

An overview: In 2018 Pomona-Pitzer and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps separated themselves from the field and are expected to do the same again this year. After the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens swept the titles last year, the CMS women were victorious in the team’s December dual meet.

Here’s just seven of many great races to keep an eye on this weekend…

Men’s 100 Free

In the SCIAC this is an underclassman dominated event. The top four seeds are sophomores, while freshman make up three of the other top eight spots. Redlands’ Aaron Bauer is the one senior with a top eight time (47.15).

Pomona-Pitzer’s Lukas Menkhoff has the fastest time this year, a 44.70 swum at the CMS vs. Pomona dual meet, where he outswam CMS’ Marco Conati (45.54), Andreas Roeseler (46.08), and Daniel Hayon (46.55), the second through fourth seeds.

In 2018 Menkhoff won the event in 44.17, six tenths faster than runner up and then senior teammate Mark Hallman in 44.73. At Nationals Menkhoff won the B final in 44.22 after posting a 44.93 in the morning. Headed into conference championships Menkhoff had the country’s eighth fastest time.

While it doesn’t look like Menkhoff’s title should be threatened, there’s plenty of speed stacked up behind him. The 100 free will be the third of his three titles he’ll try to defend this weekend (He also won the 50 free and 100 breast last year.).

Men’s 200 Breast

While Menkhoff is a dominant force in the 100 breast, the Sagehen doesn’t stretch up to the 200, leaving room for a few different faces at the top. Defending champion, Caltech junior Tom Gallup enters the meet with the third seed, a 2:05.24.

The top seed belongs to last year’s runner up, CMS’ Aaron Lutzker in 2:03.19. Sandwiched in between? Redlands freshman Lucas Walker looking to break into the action with a season best 2:04.34.

Last year Gallup won in 2:02.49 while Lutzker posted a 2:02.81. Both certainly have room to improve come taper. Walker’s lifetime best is a 2:03.34, so he too has room to move, though he’ll likely need a best time to really be in the title hunt.

Men’s 400 IM

CMS has remarkable depth in this event, with the second, fourth, fifth, sixth, eighth, and ninth best times of the season. But the fastest seed? That belongs to one of their rivals: Pomona-Pitzer’s freshman Jason Lu in 4:00.05. He’s just tenths better than CMS’ junior Henry Limm (4:00.48). Both men’s season best times come from their head to head race in December. For Lu that was a lifetime best by over a second.

Limm was runner up last year in 3:55.61 behind Pomona-Pitzer’s Liam O’Shea (3:55.17), this year’s third seed. CMS’ Aaron Lutzker also snuck under four minutes in 2018. O’Shea and Limm couldn’t match that speed at NCAAs last year, though they’ll need to be back near those times to ensure an NCAA Invite.

Headed into Conference Championships the 16th best time was already 3:58.28. We’ll see how much faster Lu can go with a few more weeks of college training under his belt.

Women’s 50 Free

CMS has Jocelyn Crawford a few strokes ahead of the crowd in 23.29 in the 50 free. She’s joined by freshman Ava Sealander (24.32) in the top five. Pomona-Pitzer owns the other three top five times behind Madison Kauahi (24.01), Hannah Zurmuhl (24.15), and Kate Denend (24.37).

Occidental’s senior-freshman duo of Joannie Kronick (24.43) and Claire Jang (24.45) have been having a great year, and come in with the sixth and seventh best times. Seventeen women had sub-25 second times as of the end of the dual meet season. Last year only 20 women got under 25 at the Conference Championship.

Kauahi will be looking to defend her title that she won in 23.30 last year when Crawford was runner up with a 23.55.

Women’s 100& 200 Breaststroke

It’s a strong breaststroke conference with significant young blood. Freshmen have the three fastest times in the 200 breast. CMS’ Augusta Lewis leads that event in 2:20.80 ahead of Pomona-Pitzer’s Alexandra Werner (2:21.49) and Alexandra Gill (2:23.83).

Gill is more of a 100 swimmer, posting the conference’s top time in 1:04.77 while Werner sits back in fifth in 1:06.84. CMS’ Rachel Wander has the second best time at 1:05.76. Redlands’ junior Julia Hagenbaumer is third seed (1:06.69) ahead of CMS’ Bryn Edwards (1:06.77).

Pomona’s Mackenzie Cummings won the 100 breaststroke last year just ahead of CMS duo Edwards and Claire Bacon-Brenes. Cummings currently sits eighth and Bacon-Brenes is sixth.

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