2022 NCAA Division III: Top-8 Men’s 400 Medley Relay Prelims Separated by 0.51

2022 NCAA Division III Championships

• Wednesday, March 16 – Saturday, March 19, 2022
• IUPUI IU Natatorium, Indianapolis, IN
• Defending Champs: Emory women (10x) & Denison men (2x) – (2019 Results)
• Live Stream
• Live Results
• Official Psych Sheet

Men’s 400 Yard Medley Relay – Prelims

• NCAA Record: 3:10.51 – Emory/ Ono, Wilson, Baker, Smith (2017)
• 2019 Winner: WashU – 3:14.17

There might not be a more anticipated race tonight in Indianapolis than the championship final of the men’s 400 medley relay. The Division III meet is the only NCAA Swimming and Diving Championship this season where the relays are not timed finals at night. Rather, the relays swim first in morning prelims to determine who will compete in the A and B finals at night.

Thursday morning’s heats of men’s 400 medley relays put on display the amazing depth of talent in Division III, where the top eight quartets all posted 3:14s and only 51 hundredths separated the first team from the eighth.

This is a much tighter field than what we saw at the 2019 NCAA Division III Championships. There, only Denison swam under 3:15 in prelims; the other seven teams ranged from 3:15.35 to 3:16.72. WashU ended up winning the event with 3:14.17, one of four teams under 3:15 in the final. Denison went 3:14.29, while Kenyon and Emory were 3:14.79 and 3:14.97.

This year, the top 8 qualifiers in prelims were all faster than the third-place team in 2019’s final.

With 240 men’s swimming and diving programs in Division III, it should come as no surprise that the caliber of swimmers continues to go up as D1 programs get cut.

A prelims heat full of 3:14s represents a massive improvement from the 2014 NCAA Championships, where MIT qualified for the final with 3:16 and the other seven teams posted 3:17s.

The Division III record in this event is 3:10.51, set by Emory in 2017 when 2020 Tokyo Olympian Andrew Wilson was the breaststroker.

Top 8 qualifiers:

1. Denison – 3:14.22
2. Kenyon – 3:14.37
3. Williams – 3:14.39
4. Johns Hopkins – 3:14.41
5. Chicago – 3:14.48
6. MIT – 3:14.53
7. Emory – 3:14.55
8. CMS – 3:14.73

As reported by Michael Hamann

If this morning’s prelims are any indication of how the finals will go, we should be in for a thrilling race this evening. The top 8 relays were all within a half-second of one another, with Denison taking the top seed in 3:14.22.

The Kenyon Lords, who have had struggles in the relays so far this meet, slide in second just a tenth behind, while Williams will swim in lane three tonight.

Six of the eight teams were off of their seeds this morning, with only Chicago and Claremont MS dropping from their seed coming into the meet.