Marco Conati Earns First-Team All-America Honors, Finishes Fourth in 100 Fly at NCAA Championships

GREENSBORO, N.C. - Sophomore Marco Conati finished fourth in the 100-yard butterfly at the NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships on Thursday with a personal-best time of 48.10, earning first-team All-America honors for the Stags.

Conati finished fourth in the prelims in the morning to qualify for the finals as one of the top eight (securing first-team All-America distinction), swimming a 48.18, breaking his previous fast time of 48.39. He then trimmed a little bit more off that time in the evening finals, touching the wall in 48.10 to edge out Brandon Fabian of Johns Hopkins in fifth in 48.13. David Fitch of Kenyon won the 100 fly in an NCAA-record time of 46.92. 

Conati now ranks second in school history behind only the 47.80 that Matt Williams swam at the 2017 NCAA Division III Championships two years ago, which is a SCIAC record as well.  He came into this season with a personal-best time of 49.48 from last year and ended up knocking almost a second and a half off that time while moving up from sixth to second in school history. 

With his fourth place finish, Conati earned 15 points for CMS, putting the Stags in 17th place all by himself. Junior Kendall Hollimon was 12th in the prelims in the morning's one-meter dive, missing the finals, but he has his best event (the three-meter) on Saturday, when he will look to improve on last year's fourth-place finish and challenge for the national title. 

On the women's side, freshman Augusta Lewis finished in tenth place overall by coming in second in the consolation finals in the 400 IM in 4:26.26, holding off Ellie Sherman of Williams by just three-hundredths of a second to secure a top 10 finish. She was also 10th in the prelims, which earned her a spot in the consolation finals and honorable mention All-America honors in both IM events, while her seven points increased the CMS total to 16 for the championships. Fellow freshman Ava Sealander also competed in the 100 fly on the women's side and came in 33rd place with a 57.35.

Tomorrow will be the quietest day of the four-day NCAA Championships for CMS, which will have only Jocelyn Crawford competing in the 100 back and the women's 800 freestyle relay in action. Saturday will close out with Conati in the 100 free and Hollimon in the three-meter for the Stags, while the Athenas will have Lewis in the 200-yard breaststroke, sophomore Mia Syme in the 1650, Sealander and Crawford in the 100 free, and a 400-yard freestyle relay team in action.