NCAA Division III Championships, Day 3 Finals: Denison Men Set Relay Record, Maintain Lead; NYU Adds Three Women’s Wins
The Denison men and NYU women have led throughout the NCAA Division III Championships in Indianapolis, and both teams are still on track to secure national titles following Friday night’s racing. Denison had a setback in prelims with a false start in the 200 medley relay, but the Big Red picked up two victories on the day as Nick Fogle won 1-meter diving before Jack Hill and Nick Hensel bookended a national championship in the 800 free relay in national-record time.
The Denison men enter the final day with 313.5 points, followed by NYU at 283 and then Chicago (265), Emory (240) and Kenyon (234). Chicago also put forth a big day as Cooper Costello became the first three-time winner of the meet with his stellar performance in the men’s 200 butterfly.
For the women, NYU had another big day as Nicole Ranile, Maeve O’Donnell and the 800 free relay team each secured titles. NYU has 375 points while Emory, which pulled off a stunner in the 200 medley relay Friday, is in second with 319.5 ahead of Kenyon (294), Denison (239) and Williams (190.5).
Men’s 200 Medley Relay
Two major shakeups took place in this middle relay with disqualifications. First, Denison’s title hopes took a hit with a false start in prelims, and then Bates paid the price at night. Max Cory appeared to be pulling off a stunning, come-from-behind win with an 18.87 split, but he jumped four hundredths early. That gave NYU an opening to take the win by two tenths.
NYU’s Teddy McQuaid, Sean Li, Teddy Cross and Greg Wehbe were responsible for the winning performance at 1:26.18. McQuaid paced the field on backstroke with his 21.66 while Wehbe’s 19.35 homecoming split was the clean split. The points gave NYU a total of 209 points, just 17 behind Denison.
Just behind in second was Carnegie Melon’s Arnav Desphande, Aaron Lee, Brayden Morford and Noah Barnett in 1:26.39. Lee crushed the field on butterfly with his time of 20.48. Kenyon was third in 1:27.08 with Pete Dunson, Noel Tumbasz, Roman Savage and Djordje Dragojlovic. Dragojlovic was the winner of the 50 free Wednesday, and he posted the top official freestyle split here at 18.97. Official results note that he jumped 0.12 before Savage touched, although no DQ was issued.
Women’s 200 Medley Relay
The Emory Eagles appeared to be out of contention in the women’s medley relay before Ava Kennedy fired off a 21.85 to come from behind and take the win over Kenyon by 0.17. Emory had Penny Celtnieks, Katie Cohen and Allison Greeneway on the first three legs on the way to a time of 1:39.72, just two tenths off the NCAA D3 record of 1:39.51 set by MIT last year.
Kenyon’s Gwen Eisenbeis, Kelsey Van Eldik, Maggie Grespin and Kate Bogan placed second in 1:39.89, and third went to Denison’s Jasmine Park, Riley Tofflemire, Phoebe Ferguson and Hailey Kaminski in 1:40.53. NYU also made a run at a top-three finish as Kaley McIntyre came home in 21.75 for her team to finish in 1:40.85.
Men’s 200 Butterfly
Cooper Costello has his third individual title of the meet, and yet again, he was dominant against the best in Division III. The Chicago junior added to his previous wins in the 200 IM and 100 fly with a performance of 1:42.98, more than 2.5 seconds clear of the field and just off the national record of 1:42.64 from Justin Finkel last year.
Emory’s McKee Thorson finished second in 1:45.52 while Wash U’s Marco Minai pilled off a stellar 27.11 closing split to take third in 1:45.91. Johns Hopkins’ Avery Clapp had pased Minai on the third leg of the race, only to be overtaken again and end up fourth (1:45.96).
Women’s 200 Butterfly
Only one swimmer got under 2:00 in the women’s 200 fly, and she did it by a substantial margin. Nicole Ranile extended the lead in the team competition for NYU as she dominated the field in 1:58.51. Ranile defended her title in the event from the 2025 meet.
Clairemont-Mudd-Scripps’ Sun Young Byun placed second here in 2:00.15, her race-best 31.20 split bringing her over the top of Amherst’s Maeve Kelley (2:00.24).
Men’s 100 Backstroke
The final length made the difference for Carnegie Melon’s Brayden Morford as he defended his national title in the 100 back. The Denison duo of Teddy Cross and Teddy McQuaid had the edge at the halfway point, with both swimmers flipping three tenths clear of Morford in identical times of 22.54. Cross remained ahead of Morford at the final turn, but the lead did not last.
A 11.70 final 25 yards brought Morford to the wall in 46.29, a quarter-second clear of Cross in 46.55. Also closing well was Calvin’s Charles Platt, who touched third in 46.68, with McQuaid falling to fourth (46.82).
Women’s 100 Backstroke
Maeve O’Donnell, already a national champion this week by virtue of her leg on NYU’s 200 free relay, secured her first individual crown as she held off Emory’s Penny Celtnieks in the 100 backstroke. O’Donnell, a freshman, blasted into an early lead and was almost a half-second up on Celtnieks at the midway point, but Kean’s Braelyn Wilson was in touch at the final turn before the Emory senior fought back and closed in 13.92.
In the end, O’Donnell came in one hundredth ahead in an incredibly tight finish. O’Donnell went 54.28, a hundredth ahead of Centnieks’ 54.29, with Wilson just one hundredth further back at 54.30.
Men’s 100 Breaststroke
Bates’ Marrich Somridhivej already took part in his team’s victorious 400 medley relay performance, and now he has an individual triumph to add to his tally. Somridhivej went wire-to-wire as he ousted defending champion Henri Bonnault from the top perch.
Somridhivej finished in 51.82, a full nine tenths clear of the 52.71 posted by Emory’s Bonnault. Connecticut College’s Carrick Shea placed third in 53.29, edging out Bridgewater’s Zachary Erb (53.42) and Chicago’s Ethan Taylor (53.45).
Women’s 100 Breaststroke
Kenyon’s Kelsey Van Eldik came through in dominant fashion in the women’s 100 breast. She just missed getting under the 1:00-barrier, but she never trailed in this final on the way to a time of 1:00.10, succeeding her graduated teammate Jennah Fadely as national titlist in this event.
Emory’s Katie Cohen, who swam on her team’s victorious 200 medley relay earlier in the session, swam a strong time of 1:01.26 to take second. There was a tie for third, with Denison’s Drue Thielking and Chicago’s Alicia Soosai tied for third at 1:02.02, with Wash U’s Hannah Lee (1:02.15) and York’s Isabella Klemm (1:02.22) not far behind.
Men’s 1-Meter Diving
Denison’s Nick Fogle has completed the sweep of men’s diving in Indianapolis, scoring 548.80 to take out the 1-meter competition. Conor Compton, who previously placed second to Fogle on 3-meter, placed second with 542.05 points while Centre College’s Justin Toth took third (527.90).
Men’s 800 Freestyle Relay
The penultimate day of the meet could have been devastating for Denison following a disqualification in the 200 medley relay prelims, but the team rallied to maintain an advantage at the end of the night. The Big Red capped it off with a wire-to-wire win in the 800 free relay, smashing the national record in the process.
One night after setting a national record in the 200 free, Jack Hill provided the firepower with a 1:34.35 opening split. George Goins, the 500 free winner, went second and Harry Parsons third, but things got competitive coming home thanks to a 1:34.55 split from Cooper Costello of Chicago on the third leg. Coming home, Chicago’s John Butler went 1:34.07, but Denison’s Nick Hensel held tough with a 1:34.66 split.
The team of Hill, Goins, Parsons and Hensel combined for a time of 6:22.37, obliterating the previous national record of 6:26.98 that both Emory and Chicago swam last season. Chicago, which had Alex Schwartz and Misha Kojanov on the first two legs before Costello and Butler, was also four seconds under the previous national mark at 6:22.72. In third place was Kenyon’s Djodje Dragojlovic, Teodor Jaworski, Roman Savage and Ethan Manske in 6:27.66.
Women’s 800 Freestyle Relay
NYU maintains a dominant lead in the team competition entering the final day of the meet after achieving victory in the 800 free relay. The team swam four seconds behind its national record from last season but did so without Kaley McIntyre, allowing the star to rest up for the final day of her college career.
Emery Muller, Lian Jeong Engle and Nicole Ranile swam the first three legs for this squad, leaving NYU in a close second place behind Williams and then Llew Ladomirak came home in 1:47.67 to pull into the lead and lock down the win. NYU’s final time was 7:17.27, a margin of victory of 1.74 seconds.
Second place went to the Pomona-Pitzer women in 7:19.01. In fifth place entering the final leg, Nina Aballea split 1:48.13 coming home to pull her team into the runnerup spot. Ellie Burkhardt, Maren Rusk and Chesna Pelka swam the first three legs for a team that clocked 7:19.14.
Denison’s Emily Harris, Olivia Morse, Reilly O’Hara and Quinn Brown ended up just behind in third at 7:19.14, with Williams barely falling out of the top-three at 7:19.30.
