41st NAIA Women’s Swimming and Diving National Championships
- Dates: Wednesday, March 2 – Saturday, March 5, 2022
- Times: Prelims 9:00 AM; Finals 5 PM
- Location: Columbus Aquatic Center, Columbus, Georgia (Eastern Time Zone)
- Defending Champions: SCAD Savannah (3x) (results)
- Championship Program
- Live Results
- Live Streaming
After a one-year hiatus due to COVID, the NAIA National Championships are back. The women will represent 25 schools this year, with 176 individual entries qualified for the meet.
The number of participants at the 2022 championship marks a significant reduction from previous championships: in 2020, there were 265 women qualified for the meet. As explained here, the NAIA set caps this year to limit the number of athletes participating in the meet, but the actual selections came with some controversy, with several top-8 qualifiers being left out of the meet.
Keiser has the highest number of women qualified (16) for individual events, and holds the number one seeds in all five relays. As such, they are projected to win by a large margin. Defending champion SCAD Savannah has 12 swimmers entered and is expected to battle Olivet Nazarene for second place.
There are a number of new teams at this year’s national meet, including University of Jamestown, Ottawa University Arizona, St. Mary Kansas, Shawnee State University, and St. Thomas University.
Stars
Diving
Only a handful of teams in the NAIA have the capability to support divers. St. Ambrose University returns four-time national champion Andrea Adam. College of Idaho has qualified three divers, and Cumberlands, Lincoln, Olivet, Midland, and Jamestown each have one.
Freestyle
SCAD comes in the with top-two sprinters, Anna McGinty and Sloan Sizemore. They rank 1-2 in the 50 free (23.63 and 23.70), while Sizemore is seeded 1st in the 100 free (51.20). Teammate Spencer Sheridan is 3rd (51.96). Seeded second and fourth in the 100 free are Keiser’s Camryn Hudson (51.82) and Emma Augustsson (52.16). Sheridan (1:53.70) and teammates Emily Elz (1:53.90) and Sizemore (1:54.10) come in with the top 3 times in the 200 free.
Keiser’s Marine Lecomte (5:00.85) is seeded first in the 500 free, with SCAD’s Elz (5:05.77) in second place. Westmont, a new team in the 2019-20 season, sports the #1 and #5 seeds in the 1650 free: Morgan Bienias (17:37.77) and Olivia Garrison (17:45.24). Between them are Erica Samuel of Indiana Wesleyan, Josefina Gonzalez of Bethel (IN), and Keiser’s Stefania Sofouli.
Backstroke
Lindsey Wilson’s Maaike Broersma is the top seed by a large margin in both backstroke distances, with 54.93 and 2:00.75. Maria Basto from Cumberlands holds the second spot in both events (56.77/2:02.35). Tyler Cates from Milligan (56.94) ranks third in the 100 back, while Lecomte from Keiser is third seed in the 200 (2:03.62).
Breaststroke
Olivet Nazarene comes in with three of the top five seeds in the 100 breast: #1 Megan Schroeder (1:03.35), #2 Allison Pearson (1:03.64), and #5 Julie Vega (1:04.78). Vega tops the entrants in the 200 breast with 2:19.74 and Schroeder ranks fourth (2:20.68).
Keiser’s Nikoline Biltoft-Jensen is seeded second in the 200 breast (2:20.01) and third in the 100 (1:03.81). Teammate Lily Robinson is third in the 200 (2:20.27).
Butterfly
Sterling College’s Sydney Schmidt tops the field in the 100 fly with 55.56. Keiser’s Noelia Garzon (55.87) and Anna Herbst (55.98) are second and third with the only other sub-56 seed times.
Camryn Hudson of Keiser ranks first in the 200 fly (2:05.28), followed closely by Ashley Parry of Olivet (2:06.22), Gabby MacPherson of Milligan (2:06.43), and Mia Thatcher from SCAD (2:06.85).
Individual Medley
Keiser’s Hudson is first seed in the 200 IM (2:06.82). Pearson of Olivet (2:07.46) and her teammate Halle Briner (2:08.25) rank #2 and #4. Basto from Cumberlands is third (2:07.92). Veterans Ori Freibach of Keiser (2:08.27) and Isabella Song from SCAD (2:08.43) are also among the top seeds in the 200.
Lecomte (4:28.60) and Keiser teammate Alexandra Giourtzidou (4:28.77) lead the field in the 400 IM. Samuel of Indiana Wesleyan (4:33.67) and ONU’s Pearson (4:34.92) lead the next group of qualifiers.
Team Race
The top teams, scored straight from the psych sheet, are as follows:
| Team | Projected Score |
| Keiser University | 732 |
| Olivet Nazarene University | 458 |
| SCAD Savannah | 449 |
| University of the Cumberlands | 341 |
| Milligan College | 241 |
| Lindsey Wilson College | 213 |
| Indiana Wesleyan University | 199 |
| Midland University | 160 |
| Loyola University New Orleans | 135 |
| Westmont College | 126 |
| Bethel University (IN) | 115 |
| Arizona Christian University | 92 |
| The College of Idaho | 75 |
| St. Andrews University | 67 |
| St. Ambrose University | 54 |
| St. Thomas | 53 |
| Sterling College | 46 |
| Brenau University | 42 |
| University of Jamestown | 39 |
| The Master’s University | 38 |
| Lincoln College | 32 |
| Shawnee State University | 24 |
| Life University | 20 |
| University of St. Mary | 5 |
| Morningside University | 4 |