CMS Women's Swim and Dive Sends 10 Swimmers to Nationals
CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's swimming and diving team will send 10 swimmers to the NCAA Division III swimming and diving championships from March 15-18 in Greensboro, N.C.
Four swimmers qualified in their top individual events, led by Augusta Lewis, who qualified in four (200 IM, 400 IM, 200 breast, 200 fly), and will swim the 200 fly this year, along with the two IM events (swimmers are allowed to compete in a maximum of three individual events). Sun Young Byun qualified in the 100 fly (13th nationally), Annie Johnson earned it in the 200 fly (17th) and Kelly Prawira made the cut in the 200 breast (20th).
Also attending the nationals as part of relay qualifications are Ella Blake and Katy Shaw in the 800 free relay, Mackenzie Mayfield and Jameson Mitchum in the 200 and 400 medley relays, Lexi Punishill in the 400 medley relay and Annika Sharma in the 200 medley relay. Byun will also be part of all three relays, while Lewis will be in the 800 free relay.
One of the big storylines will be Lewis pursuing a national championship after being close in 2022 in three different events. A year ago, she finished second in the 400 IM, third in the 200 IM, and fourth in the 200 breast. She will once again be among the top contenders in the IM events, where she is seeded second in the 200 IM and third in the 400 IM, and she is also fifth in the 200 fly after breaking the SCIAC record at the CMS Invitational with a 2:01.84, which caused her to switch from the breaststroke to the butterfly for her third event this year.
Byun's 55.23 at the SCIAC Championships was good for second place behind only Alex Turvey's league record 53.96 for Pomona-Pitzer. Turvey is ranked second at NCAAs, while Byun is 14th, but just .15 behind ninth place, which would be good enough to qualify for finals.
Johnson and Prawira both earned their way onto SCIAC podiums for the first time in 2023, and in doing so, earned their tickets to nationals. Johnson swam a 2:04.42 in the 200 fly to finish second behind Abby Smith of Pomona-Pitzer, who is seeded ninth. Prawira swam a 2:18.99 in the 200 breast to finish third behind Alexandra Gill of Pomona-Pitzer (seeded fourth), and Lewis, who will not swim the 200 breast at nationals.
Mitchum will be returning to nationals after qualifying for the finals in the 200 back a year ago and earning first-team All-America honors. She is 23rd among swimmers invited to nationals in the 200 back this year, as well as 24th in the 100 back and 29th in the 200 IM, earning B cut times in three events. Blake is also returning after winning the consolation final in the 200 free at last year's NCAAs in a school-record time of 1:50.78 to earn 10th place, and is 26th among invited swimmers in the 200.
First-years Shaw, Mayfield and Sharma will head to Greensboro in their debut seasons, while Punishill earned her first trip to nationals for the Athenas as well. Mayfield has B cut times in two events is seeded 24th in the 200 breast and 26th in the 200 IM among invited swimmers, and Shaw is 27th in the 500 free.
CMS is one of only 13 programs in the nation to send 10 or more swimmers to nationals. Denison and Emory lead with a maximum of 18, while Kenyon has 16. Chicago was fourth with 14 swimmers, NYU and Tufts earned 13 qualficiations, Johns Hopkins qualified 12, MIT and Williams 11, and Swarthmore, Carnegie Mellon and Pomona-Pitzer tied CMS with 10 invitees.
The 10 swimmers will hope to be joined by one or more of the CMS divers, who are competing at the NCAA Regionals this weekend in Emory. Izzy Doud qualified last year and was an honorable mention selection, while Emma Ng Pack just missed and was the SCIAC one-meter champion last weekend. Alexis Romero and Makenna Parkinson will also be among the CMS contingent hoping to earn tickets to Greensboro.