Tartans Set Records, Earn All-America Honors to Start NCAA Championships
(INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.) - The Carnegie Mellon University men's swimming and diving team opened the 2022 NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships with school records and All-America finishes on Wednesday, March 16. The championships meet is being hosted at the IUPUI IU Natatorium in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Senior James Kyle (Austin, Texas / St. Stephen's Episcopal School) was the top finisher for the Tartans on the day with a fourth-place finish on the 3-meter diving board. With his twin brother and teammate Jud Kyle, along with his diving teammates, in the stands, Kyle moved from sixth place to fourth place with his last two dives to earn his first career All-America title with a final score of 502.50.
The evening swims started with junior Aleksander Tarczynski (Springfield, Va. / West Springfield) placing 15th in the 200-yard IM in a time of 1:50.92. His time of 1:49.13 in the preliminaries set a new school record, topping Brian McCarthy's mark of 1:49.45 set in 2003 at the NCAA Championships. Tarczynski is just the second Tartan to place in the top 16 in the 200-yard IM, earning All-America Honorable Mention honors for the first time in his career.
The 200-yard medley relay also earned points for the Tartans with a 14th-place showing behind the efforts from freshman Adel Heddadji (San Ramon, Calif. / Dougherty Valley), senior Colin Daniel (Westfield, N.J. / Westfield), senior Justin Britton (Falls Church, Va. / George Mason), and junior Erik Feldmann (Yakima, Wash. / West Valley). The team finished in 1:29.74, the second-best time in school history, and earned All-America Honorable Mention in the event. The honor is the first for a Tartan team in the 200-yard medley relay since 2015.
Although he didn't make the top 16, Feldmann swam the 50-yard freestyle in a record-setting time of 20.40 to place 22nd out of 65 competitors.
The meet resumes on Thursday with the 200-yard freestyle relay, senior Richard Dauksher (Fort Collins, Colo. / Fossil Ridge) in the 400-yard IM, senior Sean Ream (Canton, Ohio / Jackson) and Britton in the 100-yard butterfly, and the 400-yard medley relay.