The destinies of Mendy De Rooi and Marcel Nagy in the 100 butterfly have been intertwined for the last three editions of the NAIA Swimming Championships. That both won the event Friday night boosts their chances of another connection, as front-runners for Most Outstanding Swimmer of the Meet on the men’s and women’s sides, respectively.
De Rooi, a junior at Cumberlands, won the event for a second straight year, doubling up on her 500 free win Thursday. Nagy, a Keiser senior, added a gold in fly to his 50 free gold on Night 3 of the meet.
NAIA Swimming Championships
- LIVE RESULTS
- Day 1 results
- 2020 NAIA Swimming And Diving Championships Day 1: SCAD Claims Two Relays
- Day 2 results
- 2020 NAIA Swimming and Diving Championships Day 2: Song, Nagy Tie Records
Event by event recaps:
200 medley relay
Keiser got Night 3 of the NAIA Championships started with a pair of victories, both times over Savannah College of Art and Design. The women won in 1:43.06, edging SCAD by .32 seconds, most of them found on Ori Freibach’s stellar breaststroke leg. The team comprised Megan Abad, Freibach, Anna Herbst and Elianna Kennon. SCAD clocked in at 1:43.38 with Cumberlands third in 1:46.18.
The Keiser men had the fastest split of the race in each leg, winning by nearly three seconds in 1:28.66. Garrett Green started it in 22.76, with Lukas Macek blasting a 24.72 breaststroke leg, followed by Nagy’s 21.24 and Jared Ingraham bringing the hammer at 19.94 off the end. SCAD was second in 1:31.55 with Midland third.
400 individual medley
For the third straight year, Karla Islas of Olivet Nazarene was the women’s champ, her time of 4:26.80 a quarter-second slower than last year. For the second straight year, Loyola of New Orleans’ Paige Carter was the runner-up, this time in 4:33.60. Keiser’s Anna Lofton was third.
Pol Roch repeated as the 400 IM champ. Last year, he took down the nine-year-old NAIA Swimming Championships record. This year, he obliterated his pace by shaving it another 1.45 seconds to 3:52.02. He needed just about all of it, since Keiser teammate Marti Ranea was pushing him, taking silver in 3:52.96. SCAD grabbed the next two spots via Zoltan Monori and George Harsanyi.
100 butterfly
The women’s podium was identical to a year ago. De Rooi was quicker by winning in 53.99 seconds, to 54.41 last year. Second again was Herbst with Sydney Darnell of Indiana Wesleyan third.
Nagy was a half-second ahead of the men’s field at the 50-yard wall and never looked back, finishing in 48.09. Second went to Gio Zachar of SCAD in 48.78 with Jack Jackson of Loyola third in 49.11.
200 freestyle
SCAD’s Spencer Sheridan repeated as champion, speeding up by .06 from last year to take gold in 1:50.79. Emma Augustsson of Keiser was close to reeling her in, coming back 0.31 seconds quicker in the final 100 but fell short by exactly a tenth. Third was Sloan Sizemore, who Augustsson caught on the final 50, in 1:51.04. The race was a battleground for the title contenders, with Keiser putting four in the A final an SCAD pushing three into the top five.
Freshman Calvin Coetzee of Lindsey Wilson worked the back-half of his race to eke out a win in the men’s 200 free in 1:37.00. SCAD picked up the next three places, with Joel Thatcher second in 1:37.46, followed by Kristof Monori and DJ Nowacki.
100 breaststroke
After her medley relay performance, it was no surprise that Ori Freibach handled the women’s field. Her winning time of 1:03.24 was just shy of a half-second clear of SCAD’s Isabella Song. Julia Hnidenko of Cumberlands leapt from the sixth seed in the morning to third in finals in 1:04.72.
West Virginia Tech’s Ignacio Dias went from third last year to first this year, a torrid final 50 lead the senior to the win in 54.00. Second was Simpson’s Tom Higdon in 54.15, while last year’s champ, Macek, settled for third in 54.38. That time is .19 second quicker than what was required for gold in 2019.
100 backstroke
Augustsson was ninth last year in the 100 back. This year, the sophomore rose to first, usurping her Keiser classmate Herbst. Augustsson posted a time of 56.80 to nip Herbst (56.92) and SCAD’s Alli Rassenfoss (57.21) to the wall.
On the men’s side, Gio Zachar made it three straight 100 back titles (the first was a tie with Nagy in 2018). Friday, he went out in 23.33 and left the field behind to claim the win in 48.56. Second was Jan Suchan in 49.18, starting a run of three straight Keiser swimmers.
3-meter diving
St. Ambrose’s Andrea Adam doubled up on goal, winning with a score of 256.20. Second was teammate Taylor Madison again. The only men’s diver entered was Nic Carrier of the College of Idaho.
Team Scoring
Keiser closed the gap in the women’s standings, but SCAD still has a sizeable advantage at 511.5 points heading into Saturday’s final day. Second is Keiser at 418 with Cumberlands holding onto third with 267 ahead of Olivet Nazarene’s 205.
Keiser and SCAD further distanced themselves from the pack in what is officially a two-school race. Keiser has the edge with 497 points with SCAD second at 449. Lindsey Wilson (207) continues to hold off Midland (183) for third.
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