Division III Preview: Chicago, CMS, Pomona-Pitzer Open Seasons With Big Meets

Photo Courtesy: Patrick Gorski

The NCAA Division III season is rolling and things won’t slow down until March. This weekend three more ranked teams dive back into competition: Chicago, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, and Pomona-Pitzer. All three squads will swim up an NCAA division (or two), and face teams they lost to last year. Those meets should provide a good early season test and give us a first look at some of Division III’s newest faces.

Chicago’s Big Weekend: Northwestern, Illinois, and Wheaton (IL)

Friday night Chicago will open their 2018-2019 season, taking on the area’s top Division I talent, swimming Northwestern and Illinois.

Saturday morning, the Maroons will come back to more familiar Division III competition, racing Wheaton (IL), a team they beat in 2017.

The ninth ranked men return junior breaststroke duo Reona Yamaguchi (the UAA 100 breaststroke champion) and Lance Culjat (fourth in the 200 breast at NCAAs). Taye Baldinazzo, the 500 freestyle NCAA bronze medalist, also returns for his junior year.

The #11 women are led by a trio of sophomores: breaststroker Margaret Wolfson, IMer Nadia Redza, and backstroker Gillian Gagnard. Those three, plus senior IMer Simone Stover were the team’s individual All-Americans last year.

Pomona-Pitzer’s Season Opening Double

Pomona-Pitzer will open their 2018-2019 campaign with a double meet weekend, racing at CalBaptist Friday night and swimming Concordia on Saturday. Last year, the Sagehens lost to CalBaptist. Concordia, however, they’ve historically beat.

The #7 Sagehen men should be led by 100 breaststroke National Champion, sophomore Lukas Ming Menkhoff. They graduated All-Americans Samuel To and Mark Hallman last spring. This will be the freshmen class’ first chance to show their potential impact.

The #12 women have a quartet of National-level seniors: breaststroker Mackenzie Cummings, sprinter Maddie Kauaki, and backstrokers Angela Ling and Sarah Jin. Those four and juniors Sabrina Kwan and Hannah Zurmuhl have been key pieces of the Sagehens strong relays in the past few years. This weekend we’ll see how the rest of the roster fleshes out to make a comprehensive dual meet squad.

#10 WashU Men v. #23 DePauw Men

In what appears to be the only dual meet between two ranked teams this weekend the #10 WashU men will race the #23 DePauw men. Last year the Bears handily beat the Tigers.

WashU is led by senior Kevin Van Cleave. The 2018 200 IM NCAA runner up is already showing his versatility this season, leading the Bears in a few events. His classmate and 200 fly silver medalist Brandon Lum has already cleared 50 seconds in the 100 fly.

Chase Van Patten is at the top of the team’s sprint freestyle group. All of those men are a step ahead of the Tigers’ best times so far this season.

After the graduation of multiple time All-Americans Nicole Zanolli and Niamh O’Grady, the #7 WashU women have freshmen Grace Carey stepping up in a number of events. Returners Mollie Seidner, Stephanie Li, Lauren Sapp, and Eleanor Pollitt are also leading the team through meets so far this fall.

CMS Stepping Up For UC San Diego

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps starts their season off with significant competition, traveling south to San Diego to take on Division II UC San Diego. In 2017 both Division III squads lost, but the men kept things exceptionally close.

That Stags squad (ranked #12 in the CSCAA Preseason poll) returns junior All-American diver Kendall Hollimon and his classmates and 2018 NCAA qualifiers Sam Willett and Henry Limm.

The #13 women have a duo of National-level breaststrokers, juniors Bryn Edwards and Claire Bacon-Brenes. The Athenas have put together a number of strong relays in recent years. Sophomore Natalia Orbach-Mandel (like her sister Hannah, a Kenyon senior) established herself as a key piece of those efforts last year.

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