Eleven Earn Placement to Compete at NCAA Championships
(INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.) – Eleven athletes from the Carnegie Mellon University men's swimming and diving program have earned the right to compete at the 2022 NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships. Of the 11 men invited this year, nine were set to compete in 2020 when the Tartans also had 11 selected to compete which is the most for the championships under 15-year head coach Matthew Kinney. The championships will be hosted by the Franklin College and the Indiana Sports Corp at the IU Natatorium in Indianapolis, Indiana, on March 16-19.
Seniors Justin Britton (Falls Church, Va. / George Mason) and Richard Dauksher (Fort Collins, Colo. / Fossil Ridge) headline the individual qualifiers while they'll be joined by eight others to compete in all five relays.
Britton earned his third trip to the national meet in the 100-yard backstroke with a 10th-ranked time of 48.20 and the 200-yard backstroke with a 12th-ranked time of 1:46.78. He will also swim the 100-yard butterfly. Britton previously earned All-America Honorable Mention in both backstroke events and the 400-yard medley relay.
Dauksher also earned his third trip to the national meet with a time of 3:57.65 which ranks 17th in the 400-yard IM. He will also swim in the 100-yard backstroke and 200-yard backstroke events. In 2019, Dauksher was an All-America Honorable Mention in the 400-yard IM, 1,650-yard freestyle, and the 800-yard freestyle relay.
The Tartans earned bids from four relays including the 400-yard medley relay (ranked 11th), 200-yard medley relay (ranked 13th), the 400-yard freestyle relay (ranked 14th) and the 200-yard freestyle relay (ranked 15th), and will also field a relay in the 800-yard freestyle relay where their seed time is 21st.
The 400-yard medley is comprised of Britton, senior Colin Daniel (Westfield, N.J. / Westfield), senior Sean Ream (Canton, Ohio / Jackson), and junior Aleksander Tarczynski (Springfield, Va. / West Springfield) while the 200-yard medley relay will be swam by freshman Adel Heddadji (San Ramon, Calif. / Dougherty Valley), Daniel, Britton, and junior Erik Feldmann (Yakima, Wash. / West Valley).
Britton, Feldmann, junior John McNab (Westport, Conn. / Staples), and junior Yousef Hassen (Redlands, Calif. / Redlands) will swim the 400-yard freestyle relay with Feldmann, Hassen, junior Matthew Nagler (West Chicago, Ill. / St. Charles East), and Britton swimming the 200-yard freestyle relay.
Five of the Tartans who earned bids as part of a relay will also compete individually by virtue of achieving B cut times during the season. Those athletes and events are:
Tarczynski - 200-yard IM and 200-yard butterfly
Feldmann - 50-yard freestyle
Ream - 100-yard butterfly and 200-yard butterfly
Daniel - 100-yard breaststroke and 200-yard breaststroke.
Hassen - 100-yard freestyle
Senior James Kyle (Austin, Texas / St. Stephen's Episcopal School) will compete in both the 1-meter diving and 3-meter diving events and is seeded first on the 3-meter board after winning the NCAA Region 4 Diving Championships with 552.75 points. This will be his first time competing at nationals after earning a place at the meet in 2020.