Women's Swimming & Diving at NCAA Championships Beginning Wednesday

MEDFORD, MA (March 13, 2023) - The Tufts University Jumbos will be entered in every swimming event at the 2023 NCAA Division III Women's Swimming & Diving Championships which get started on Wednesday in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Championship Details:
2023 NCAA Division III Women's Swimming & Diving Championships
Dates: Wednesday, March 15 through Saturday, March 18
Location: Greensboro, NC – Greensboro Aquatic Center (Directions)
Coverage: SCHEDULE – PSYCH SHEET – LIVE RESULTS – LIVE VIDEO

The 13 Jumbos slated to compete at NCAA's this week are seniors Claire Brennan, Chloe Deveney, Katelin Isakoff, Elle Morse and Katelin Ulmer, juniors Jillian Cudney and Sahar Mumtaz, sophomore Lara Wujciak and first-years Madeleine Dunn, Jade Foltenyi, Maddie Hagberg, Lily Klinginsmith and Quinci Wheeler.

The championships run through Saturday and will be held at the Greensboro Aquatic Center, with the Old Dominion Athletic Conference also serving as hosts. On each of the four days at the meet, preliminaries will begin at 10 am and the finals will start at 6 pm.

Tufts' presence at the event will be felt right away as four Jumbos are qualified in the 500 freestyle that will start the meet on Wednesday. Three are seeded in the top nine with Dunn fourth (4:52.69), Brennan fifth (4:52.74) and Isakoff ninth (4:56.78). Mumtaz is also in the field. Klinginsmith is Tufts' top seed on Wednesday with her #3 mark in the 200 IM (2:00.95). The Jumbos have three in that event with Wujciak and Hagberg also competing. There are three from Tufts in Wednesday's 50 freestyle too, with Ulmer as the 15th seed (23.38), Cudney 18th (23.42) and Morse 25th (23.48). The 200 medley relay will also take place on Wednesday with Tufts ranked eighth in the event with a 1:42.71 mark that was swam by Klinginsmith, Wheeler, Foltenyi and Ulmer.

The Jumbos have a pair of top-eight relays in action on Thursday. They are fourth in the 200 free relay with a time of 1:32.87 that Ulmer, Cudney, Klinginsmith and Morse combined on. Their 3:44.94 mark in the 400 medley relay is #8 nationally, with Brennan, Hagberg, Klinginsmith and Wheeler submitted the qualifying time.

Klinginsmith is the national top seed in the 100 butterfly on Thursday with a 53.56 time. She'll be joined in the event by Foltenyi and Wujciak. The Jumbos also have Brennan defending her 2022 national championship as one of five entries in the 200 freestyle on Thursday. Her 1:49.09 seed time is fourth, while Isakoff is #9 (1:50.21) and Dunn, Cudney and Mumtaz are also entered. Deveney is Tufts' lone entry in Thursday's 400 IM with a qualifying mark of 4:29.50.

Friday is the quietest day for Tufts, but they will defend another national championship that day. Brennan and Isakoff helped the Jumbos win the 800 freestyle relay in 2022, and this year they along with Deveney and Klinginsmith put together a seed time of 7:20.18 that is #2 entering the meet. Also on Friday, Wujciak is #7 as the only Jumbo entry in the 200 butterfly (2:02.09). Wheeler, Morse and Ulmer will race in the 100 breaststroke and Hagberg is among the 100 backstroke qualifiers.

The Jumbos will look to finish the meet strong as the 400 freestyle relay is the final event and Tufts is the #1 national seed. Morse, Isakoff, Ulmer and Klinginsmith swam the qualifying mark of 3:22.68.

The team also has five entries in the 100 freestyle on Saturday led by Klinginsmith as third seed (49.92) and Brennan seventh (50.53). Morse has All-American potential (top 16) with her #17 ranking (51.11) while Cudney and Isakoff could easily out-swim their seeds (28th and 30th, respectively).  Dunn and Mumtaz have scoring potential in the 1650 free where they're seeded fourth (16:51.90) and 15th (17:13.04), respectively. Hagberg is ranked 17th for the 200 backstroke with a 2:01.78 mark, while Wheeler and Ulmer will race in the 200 breaststroke.

Tufts' seventh-place finish with 13 competitors last year was the program's best national showing since the team was sixth in 1982. The 2023 Jumbos will explore the possibility of improving upon last year's historic NCAA meet starting Wednesday.