Somridhivej takes residence NCAA Division III championship in 100-yard breaststroke

INDIANAPOLIS — Bates males’s swimming senior captain Marrich Somridhivej is the NCAA Division III champion within the 100-yard breaststroke after he broke his personal NESCAC report within the occasion Friday night time on the IU Natatorium. 

“Marrich moving from a non-recruited athlete with potential to a national champion is a moment very few get to experience,” head coach Peter Casares stated. “I feel great gratitude toward both Bates for attracting such a great person and him for this journey. He is a great swimmer, so thoughtful and hard working. But what many don’t know who look at times is he’s an even better person. He has made this entire program better with his leadership in and out of the water.”

Somridhivej (South Windsor, Conn.) raced to the end within the championship remaining in 51.82 seconds, the second-fastest time in NCAA Division III historical past. He’s the second particular person NCAA champion in Bates swimming and diving historical past, along with his fellow senior captain Max Cory (Dublin, Calif.) successful the 100-yard freestyle final 12 months. Cory seems to defend his title this Saturday.

It’s the second NCAA championship of the meet for Somridhivej, who swam the breaststroke leg for the national-record breaking 400-yard medley relay on Wednesday. He joins monitor and area throwers Jaime Sawler ’02 and Liz Wanless ’04 as the one Bates athletes, in any sport, to win a number of nationwide titles in the identical 12 months.

The Bobcats acquired three extra All-America performances on Friday.

• Junior Sarah Palmer (Brunswick, Maine) took eleventh within the ladies’s 100-yard breaststroke, swimming to the end within the comfort remaining in 1:02.88. It’s the fifth All-America efficiency of her excellent profession. 
• Junior Tim Johnson (Brewster, Mass.) earned the seventh All-America honor of his profession by taking Twelfth within the males’s 100-yard backstroke, racing to the end within the prelims in 48.29 seconds and touching the wall within the comfort remaining in 48.33 seconds. 
• Sophomore Nate Oppenheim (Easton, Conn.) turned within the fourth All-America efficiency of his profession, and his first in a person occasion, with a Twelfth-place end within the 100-yard breaststroke. He raced to the end within the comfort remaining in 54.34 seconds. 

Bates seemed like they’d damaged their very own NCAA Division III report within the 200-yard medley relay once they touched the wall in 1:25.51 within the championship remaining, however upon evaluation they narrowly acquired disqualified because of the anchor leg leaving early.

“The 200 medley relay DQ was tough,” Casares stated. “But we won’t forget we are a team that celebrates wins together, and we also get to be together during tough times. And that’s the true gift in all of this. Having the privilege to be in this together – and knowing we’re there for each other.” 

Through three days of competitors, the Bates males’s workforce is in seventh place out of 43 scoring groups with 120 factors. Meanwhile, Palmer is the lone member of the ladies’s workforce on the meet, and he or she tallied six factors on Friday for a tie for thirty third with sooner or later remaining.

The Bobcats compete within the males’s 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard backstroke, 200-yard breaststroke, and 400-yard freestyle relay on Saturday to conclude this 12 months’s NCAA Championships, with Palmer wrapping up her meet with the ladies’s 200-yard breaststroke. 

 

Gallery: (3-20-2026) Swim at NCAAs Day 3 (Strauss Studios)