Klinginsmith Wins NCAA 100 Butterfly Title, Team 4th Through Two Days at NCAA's

GREENSBORO, NC (March 16, 2023) - Tufts University first-year Lily Klinginsmith won the the national championship in the 100 butterfly at the 2023 NCAA Division III Women's Swimming & Diving meet at Greensboro Aquatic Center on Thursday evening.

In the morning Klinginsmith had been second in the preliminaries with a time of 54.29, a tenth of a second behind Pomona-Pitzer junior Alex Turvey (52.19). In the final tonight though, Klinginsmith built a small lead through 50 yards and then powered her way to the win with a 53.65 time ahead of Turvey's 54.22 in second place.

"It's crazy," Klinginsmith said after her victory. "It's definitely not something I expected. It took a lot of hard work behind the scenes, but I trusted the hard work and it paid off."


 
The national title is the third won by Tufts at the last two national championship meets, including current senior Claire Brennan's victory in the 200 freestyle and a 800 freestyle relay title last year. Klinginsmith now has four All-American honors (two individual, two relay) at the 2023 meet. It's the eighth national championship won by Tufts women's student-athletes since March 2021. 

The Jumbos were also the national runner-up in the 200 freestyle relay tonight. The foursome of Elle Morse, Jillian Cudney, Klinginsmith and Katelin Ulmer finished with a 1:31.97 time, just 0.35 off the winning pace set by Emory University who was first in 1:31.62. The four Tufts swimmers all earn All-American awards (top eight).

Led by Klinginsmith and the 200 free relay, the Jumbos scored 94 team points today and have 163.5 through two days at the meet which has the team in fourth place.

With her fifth career All-American performance in the pool tonight, Brennan was sixth in the 200 freestyle final with a 1:50.73 mark.

Tufts also had three honorable mention All-American (places 9 through 16) times tonight. First-year Jade Foltenyi, seeded 32nd in the 100 fly, impressively swam 55.37 in the prelims to get into the consolation final where she was 14th with a 55.86 time. Senior Katelin Isakoff timed 1:50.94 in the 200 freestyle for 11th. The 400 medley relay of Maddie Hagberg, Quinci Wheeler, Isakoff and Brennan won the consolation final for ninth overall with a 3:46.48 time that was just 0.03 off the school record.

Two Jumbo swimmers were in the 400 IM preliminaries on Thursday morning. Sophomore Cierra McCarty swam 4:36.32 for a 24th-place overall finish, and senior Chloe Deveney touched in 4:35.63 for 26th place. Also in preliminary action for the Jumbos were Lara Wujciak in the 100 fly (56.42) and in the 200 free Madeleine Dunn (1:52.80), Cudney (1:54.25) and Sahar Mumtaz (1:54.52).

On Friday, the Tufts women will be entered in the 200 butterfly, 100 backstroke, 100 breaststroke and 800 freestyle relay. The NCAA Championships run through Saturday.