Division III Preview: CMS Travels East to Face Chicago and WashU

Photo Courtesy: Stephen Carr

This weekend in NCAA Division III action the MIT Engineers make their season debut.

Denison and Washington University in St. Louis are deep into their racing seasons. Denison faces back to back Division I competition, providing competition for even their top athletes. WashU will head to the University of Chicago, where they’ll race Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, a team traveling quite a ways for a dual meet.

Stevens will head across the Hudson River to race NYU. While not as highly ranked as they have been in some past years, the Ducks should still give the Violets some good races.

After getting warmed up in their relay meet, Kenyon dives into a more traditional format with a dual meet against Michigan State this weekend. Emory is also back in action, at their self named Emory Invite. Johns Hopkins has another big weekend ahead, with Drexel, Loyola, and West Chester.

CMS Heads East: At Chicago with WashU

Saturday presents one of the more stacked Division III double dual meets of the year. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps will head east, for a meet that should present significant competition for the #13 Athenas and the #12 Stags. They’ll face WashU (#7 women, #10 men) at the University of Chicago (#11 women, #9 men).

Based on schedules from the last decade, this appears to be the first time CMS has faced these teams, outside of NCAA competition.

There should be a number of close races across events. WashU (Jerry Chen, Barclay Dale) and Chicago (Byrne Litschgi, Keda Song) each have two of the top eight 100 backstrokers in the country so far this fall.

The Stags (Henry Limm), Bears (Kevin Hao), and Maroons (Lance Culjat) each have one of the country’s top eight 200 breaststrokers as well.

Chicago’s freshman start Nick Ding may face WashU’s Brandon Lum or Andrew Pek in the 100 fly.

In the 100 free CMS’ Christian Simon, Daniel Hayon, Andreas Roeseler, WashU’s Chase Van Patten, Kevin Van Cleave, Pek, Michael Matthews, Simon Deshusses, and Chicago’s Keenan Novis have all been under 48 so far. That could make for a tight finish in the 400 free relay between CMS and WashU.

For the women, Augusta Lewis leads the Athenas in the 100 breast while Nicole Lin and Stephanie Li have the top times for Chicago and WashU, respectively.

With a few more meets under their belt than their competition, WashU’s Elle Pollitt and Mollie Seidner are among the top 100 freestylers in the country so far this season. Chicago’s Lin and CMS’ Natalia Orbach-Mandel are capable of stepping up and racing the Bears.

Orbach-Mandel and her teammate Allie Umemoto are the ones to beat in the 200 free.

In the 100 fly WashU’s Lauren Sapp could go head to head with Chicago’s Hadley Ackerman and Nicole Garcia. The 200 back could see WashU’s Ella Needler and Chicago’s Alice Ye in a tight race as well.

Denison Faces Ohio State, Then Xavier

Denison will race back to back Division I competition this weekend, swimming Ohio State on Friday night and Xavier on Saturday.

The Ohio State meet should give some competition to the members of the Big Red who are leading the way. Both the men and the women beat Xavier last year.

KT Kustritz is currently the fastest in Division III in the 100 (1:02.80) and 200 (2:20.01) breaststroke and the 100 free (52.51). Those times would put her second, second, and eighth on the Buckeyes’ depth chart so far this season.

Matt Hedman is off and running this season, already leading the country in the 400 IM (3:59.21), 500 free (4:31.58), and the 1650 (15:33.96). So far this fall the Buckeyes have just one man faster than Hedman in the 500.

Next Friday night Kenyon will race Ohio State, before going head to head with the Big Red on Saturday the 10th. It should be interesting to see how the two DIII powers fare against the in-state Division I leader, before their own match up.

MIT Races Yale

MIT head coach Dani Korman‘s squad will welcome Yale- her previous coaching stop- for their season opener on Saturday.

This will be the first appearance for the Class of 2022. While the newcomers look ready to make an impact on the NEWMAC, and potentially nationally, the Engineers have a number of returning National level scorers as well.

Senior breaststroker Brandon McKenzie and classmate and distance swimmer Joshua Graves return to lead the fourth ranked men. They’re joined by sophomores Peter Crocker and Bouke Edskes who should have a continued impact on the shorter freestyle events. Edskes also adds impressive backstroke and IM abilities.

The sixth ranked women have a formidable duo of butterfliers: junior Kayla Holman and sophomore Kailey Allen. A sprinter and breaststroker, junior Priscilla Wu is a key relay piece for the Engineers.

The Engineers have a large crew on the boards as well, led by junior diver and multiple time NEWMAC Champion Samuel Solomon, and Blake Zhou and Deborah Wen for the women.

What exactly the Bulldogs bring to Cambridge will be a bit of a surprise, as the women open their season Friday night and MIT will be the men’s debut.

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