CMS Women's Swimming and Diving to Send 11 Swimmers to NCAA Division III Championships

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's swimming and diving team had 11 members earn invitations to the NCAA Division III Championships, which will be held on March 18-21 in Greenboro, N.C.

The Athenas will be joined by seven members of the men's swimming and diving team to give CMS 18 student-athletes at nationals, up from 13 a year ago (when the Athenas had 11 and the Stags had two).

Leading the way will be two-time SCIAC Swimmer of the Year Augusta Lewis, who qualified for nationals in all three of the events she earned SCIAC titles in last week. Among NCAA invitees, Lewis currently ranks fourth in the nation in the 400 IM, sixth in the nation in the 200-yard breaststroke, and seventh in the nation in the 200 IM, which puts her in position to qualify for finals in all three events if everyone were to swim the same as their seed time. 

Sophomore Ava Sealander also earned individual qualifications in multiple events, placing 11th in the 100-yard butterfly and 14th in the 50-yard freestyle among invitees. First-year Jameson Mitchum is seeded eighth in the 200-yard backstroke, projecting ahead of the nine-swimmer cutoff line to qualify for finals, while two CMS first-years, Gracey Hiebert (16th) and Ella Blake (19th) earned individual qualifying times in the 1650. 

The Athenas will also be well represented in the relays, with five relay teams competing in the 200 medley, 400 medley, 200 free, 400 free and 800 free. Junior Natalia Orbach-Mandel will be a part of all five, anchoring the medley relays in the freestyle and also swimming 50-yard, 100-yard and 200-yard legs of the freestyle relays. 

Hiebert and Blake will join Orbach-Mandel in the 800 free relay, along with junior Christina Campbell. The 400 free relay will include Lewis, and juniors Janet Tran and Allie Umemoto with Orbach-Mandel, while the 200 free relay, will include Sealander, Tran, and first-year Suzanne Starzyk. 

The 400-yard medley relay will have Mitchum in the backstroke, Lewis in the breaststroke, Sealander in the butterfly and Orbach-Mandel in the freestyle. The 200-yard medley relay will feature junior Stephanie Lewis, along with Mitchum, Starzyk and Orbach-Mandel. 

Several Athenas could also participate in additional events if their schedules permit. Mitchum, for example, ranks 22th in the 100 back and could add that to her agenda for the weekend if the bounce-back time allowed her to compete at full speed in the relays, while Sealander could add the 200 fly, where she ranks 23rd.

The NCAA Division III Championships will be held at the Greensboro Aquatic Center. NCAA.com will video stream all sessions Wednesday through Saturday of the championships.