For the last month, the No. 10 women’s and No. 14 men’s WashU swim teams have been focused on one thing: performing at the NCAA Division III national championships. The fastest eight men and nine women represented the Bears in Indianapolis from March 18-21, competing against 562 other athletes from across D-III. Over each of the four days of swimming, preliminary heats were held in the morning and finals in the evening. 

The Bears enjoyed some particularly strong individual performances across the meet, setting five program records and earning 15 All-American finishes.

“This meet is always super special because everyone at the meet is such a great swimmer,” junior Marco Minai said. “The level of competition is just awesome. … Getting to see these awesome swimmers do what they do best and getting to meet people around the country is just a blast.” 

The first day of the championships was very successful for the men’s team, with two record-setting swims. First-year Parker Chan continued his incredible rookie season, finishing second in the nation in the 500-yard freestyle in 4:23.33. This time was good for a program record and the fastest swim by a first-year in D-III history.

“I was super proud of how he did,” Minai said about Chan’s performance. “The amount of work and blood, sweat, and tears he puts into this sport in practices and races pushes me every day and seeing him have success made me super happy.”

Minai also enjoyed a strong start, setting a program record in the 200-yard Individual Medley (IM) prelims before breaking that record again in the finals as he finished fourth overall.

Day 2 also featured two more program records written in the history books of WashU swim. Minai showed out once again, this time finishing in 3:50.81 in the 400-yard IM, good for third in the country. 

“I think I thrive in a higher intensity atmosphere, which finals brings,” Minai said on his success. “You’re just narrowing down the pool to the fastest people from the morning so there’s more energy. … The two IM races I was definitely very happy with.”

Relays have been a strength for the women’s team throughout the season, and record number two of the day came from the 200-yard freestyle relay team. Senior Andrea Leng, junior Izzie Gattone, sophomore Iris Qi, and first-year Ayaan Olasewere finished in 11th place with a program-best time of 1:33.08.

The third day featured the most podium finishes for both teams. Junior Hannah Lee had the highest finish for the Bears, earning fifth in the 100-yard breaststroke. She also set the program record in the prelims for this event. 

“I think our teams did really well and we all worked together to do the best that we could at nationals,” Lee said. “I think that working towards this common goal was something that bonded us all as a team, which made swimming fast for the team all easier.” 

The women’s team earned two more All-American honors in relay events in the 200-yard medley and the 800-yard freestyle relays.

“I try to go in with the same mentality, but obviously I think relays are a lot more fun,” Lee said  about the difference between individual and relay competition. “You get to do [the relay] with three other teammates and the energy is just a lot higher.”

Chan continued his strong performance, notching an eighth place finish in the 200-yard butterfly alongside finishing ninth in the 800-yard freestyle relay with Minai, first-year Gavin Coggan, and senior Ethan Feng.

On the last day of competition, Chan earned another second place finish in the 1650-yard freestyle, only 12 seconds out of first with a time of 15:16.55 that would have been good to win the event last year. The other podium finish of the day came from junior Shanze Karimi, who finished seventh in the 3-meter diving.

All in all, the men’s team finished in 10th place, and the women’s team finished in 13th place, both relatively in line with their finishes in recent years. Though this competition breaks the Bears’ two-year streak of having a national champion, with Alex McCormick and Kyle Wolford winning the 200-yard backstroke in back-to-back years, the number of program records and All-American finishes speaks to the teams’ overall strong performance. 

These national championships conclude another successful season for the Bears. Individually swimmers broke programs records and both teams finished in the top 15 in D-III. The grind does not stop there, though. 

“It’s time to get back to work,” Minai said. “Maybe let my body relax for the week and then get back to work and build back up for next year and hopefully just keep getting better and better.”