Applebaum Earns Third Place in 100 Fly on Second Day of NCAA Championships

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Frank Applebaum broke his own CMS record in the 100-yard butterfly with a 47.13 to take third place on the second day of the NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships on Thursday at the Greensboro Aquatic Center.

Applebaum was also part of an All-America 400-yard medley relay team, along with Jeremy Tan, Evan Deedy and Anderson Breazeale, as the Stags finished in eighth place with a 3:14.97 (No. 2 in CMS history), and a second-team All-America 200-yard freestyle relay team, along with Tan, Dylan Krueger, and Theo Johnson, which came in tenth place. Breazeale was also an individual second-team All-America (tenth) in the 200 free.

After the second day, CMS moved up from 13th place to ninth place in the team standings with 86 points. At the midway point of the competition, Emory leads with 214, followed by Kenyon (177), Chicago (167) and NYU (164).

Applebaum is the two-time defending national champion in the 200 fly, which takes place tomorrow, and he earned first-team All-America honors in the 100 fly for the second time in his career with his third-place finish, his highest ever. His time of 47.13 eclipsed his previous personal best of 47.41, which he set at the 2022 national championships, when he came in fifth.  

Breazeale took tenth place in the 200-yard freestyle to earn second-team All-America honors, touching the wall in 1:38.09 to finish in second in the consolation. He also swam a 1:37.91 in prelims, falling just short of the championship final by a tenth of a second. The fastest 200 free in CMS history prior to Breazeale's arrival was 1:38.35 by Matt Williams in 2017, and Breazeale will graduate as the record holder in the event (1:37.29).

The third day of the NCAA Championships will feature Applebaum's quest to three-peat as national champion in the 200 fly as a senior, after setting an NCAA record in 2022 with a 1:44.01, and then breaking it in 2023 with a 1:43.96. He has since broken it a third time at home (1:43.87) at Axelrood Pool in a dual meet with Pomona-Pitzer in December and will try to end his career without ever losing a 200 fly race to a Division III swimmer.

The Stags will also have Thayer Breazeale in the 200 fly field as well, while Tan will be in the 100 back, Deedy will compete in the 100 breast, and the 800-yard freestyle relay team will be in action for morning finals.