Division III Weekly Meet Recap: Kenyon, Denison Women Tie at Kenyon Relays

Photo Courtesy: Allen Rich

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Division III swimmers and divers are putting up fast times right from the get go this season. On both the men’s and women’s sides, reigning NCAA Champions and All-Americans are already getting to work for the 2016-17 season. As usual, the Kenyon Relays meet posted intense races, but swimmers across the country posted some fast individual swims as well.

Kenyon Relays

Eight meet records fell on Saturday as Denison, College of Wooster, Ohio Wesleyan, Ohio Northern, Wittenberg, Oberlin and Hiram traveled to Kenyon College for the annual Kenyon Relays meet. On the women’s side, the Kenyon Ladies and Denison Big Red tied at 160 points. Despite huge middle legs from freshman Kt Kustritz (28.81) and Carolyn Kane (24.95), Denison was only able to pull out second place in the opening 200 medley relay. However, these splits are only .31 and .24 seconds, respectively off the splits on Big Red’s second-place 200 medley relay from NCAAs last year. Kustritz later split 28.58 in the 200 breaststroke relay, which is only .08 off the NCAA split.

Hannah Orbach-Mandel led the way for the Ladies as she was a key player on four relay victories for Kenyon. She anchored the 200 medley relay in 23.22, a full second faster than any other 50 freestyle split of the day. The other notable race of the day was the leadoff leg of the 3 x 500 freestyle relay. Denison’s Campbell Costley put the Big Red in the lead by swimming a 5:05.12 against Kenyon’s Marysol Arce‘s 5:13.55. Arce is the reigning NCAA Champion in this event, while Costley finished third last year, less than three seconds behind. Costley’s split is easily the fastest 500 in the nation so far for Division III.

In the men’s meet, the Denison men handedly won the team title 164-128 over the Lords. After narrowly losing the 200 medley relay, the Big Red team of Jack Lindell, Bebe Wang, P.J. Desmet and Alec Carlson won the 200 backstroke relay in similar fashion. Their time of 1:33.84 was just enough to edge the Lords’ 1:33.93. Kenyon fought back, breaking the meet record in the 200 breaststroke relay as well as the 3 x 500 relay. In the end, it was not enough for the dominant Denison squad. Lindell was a part of three winning relay teams as was Wang.

Photo Courtesy: Widener Athletics

Widener vs. Misericordia

The Widener women took down Misericordia 191-65 while the men did the same 167-89. A simple lack of depth held back the Misericordia teams against two strong Widener squads. Grace Nikolski won two events for Misericordia (100 and 200 breast) while Josh Grzech and Aidan Bergan placed 1-2 for the Cougars in the 100 back. Ricky Averill and Thomas Scott did the same in the 200 breast, as did Averill and Nick Lucca in the 100 fly.

For Widener, none other than All-American Ian Gaynor stole the show as he blasted a 21.01 50 freestyle. This is the fastest time so far for Division III by nearly half a second. He also won the 100 free in 46.41 and was a member of the winning 200 medley and 400 free relay teams. Jillian Bujanowski and teammate Christine Kunzler each won three events for Widener. Bujanowski was victorious in the 100 and 200 backstroke and 200 IM, while Kunzler won the 50, 100 and 200 freestyle.

Photo Courtesy: UW-Eau Claire Athletics

Other Top Swims:

Samantha Senczyszyn (Eau Claire, 100 breast) – Senczyszyn did not waste any time this season in her signature event. Just a sophomore, she raced to a 1:05.55, the fastest time in the nation this year. At this meet last year, she swam a 1:07.85. She went on to win the NCAA title in this event in 1:01.09. If this is any indication of how her season is going to go, keep an eye out for her to break Lindsay Payne’s NCAA record of 1:00.54. This could be the year a Division III female breaststroker breaks the 1:00 barrier at the NCAA Championships.
Lindsay Hagman (Trinity, 100 free) – After placing seventh in this event at least year’s NCAA Championships, Hagmann swam a 53.89 putting her third for Division III so far this season. Hagmann did not break :54 in a dual meet until January last year.
Ryan Boraski (Keene State, 100 free) – Similarly to Senczyszyn, Boraski bested the competition at a dual meet against Division I UCONN and Division II Bridgeport with a personal best in-season time for this event. His swim of 46.16 is also the fastest time in the nation, and his 200 medley relay split of 20.20 is the fastest split so far this season in the 50 freestyle.

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Roger S. Stark

7 years ago

Josie Stark

JY Schaser

7 years ago

Exciting seeing Alec’s name!