FEDERAL WAY, Wash. — Arizona's men's swimming and diving team concluded the 2024-2025 season with a strong showing at the NCAA Division 1 Men's Championship, held in Federal Way, Washington March 26-29. The Cats left the national championship with a new program record and six athletes earning All-American Honorable Mentions.
Tomas Lukminas, Ralph Daleiden, Haakon Naughton, Gage DuBois, Jadan Nabor, Lars Kuljus, Hunter Ingram and Miles Bottai all traveled to Washington to represent Arizona on a national stage.
Day 1: Wednesday, March 26
The Cats opened up their national competition with the 800 freestyle relay. The relay team composed of Daleiden, Lukminas, Bottai and Kuljus finished 21st, with a time of 6:14.14. Notably, Lukminas, in his first ever NCAA Championship race, put up an impressive 1:31.92 split in his second leg of the relay.
Day 2: Thursday, March 27
DuBois was the only Arizona athlete to compete on Thursday and he secured a spot in the men's 1-meter consolation finals. DuBois finished 16th out of 48 (303.60) and in doing so earned CSCAA All-American Second Team honors.
Day 3: Friday, March 28
To start off Friday's competition for the Cats, Naughton just narrowly missed advancing to the finals in the 100 butterfly, placing 19th out of 45 swimmers in the event with a 45.09 finish.
In the 200 freestyle, Lukminas and Daleiden both put up strong times. Lukminas finished 20th out of 42 participating swimmers with an impressive 1:32.14. Daleiden ended in 29th place (1:32.69).
Day 4: Saturday, March 29
The final day of NCAA competition saw strong performances from the pool and the boards for the Cats.
Naughton put up a personal best (1:40.26) in the 200 fly prelims to carry him to the consolation finals for the event. Naughton finished 12th in the finals with a 1:40.37 and earned CSCAA All-American Second Team honors.
In the 100 free trials, Lukminas placed 24th out of 65 participating swimmers, posting a 41.98 that would have beaten the program record (previously 42.00) if Lukminas had not already beaten it with his 41.56 finish at the Big 12 Championships earlier this month. Daleiden also qualified for the NCAAs in the 100 free and finished 41st (42.43).
On platform, DuBois narrowly missed qualifying for finals, placing 22nd out of 43 divers in the event with a 321.00 finish.
To close out the night and the meet, Arizona's 400 free relay team (Lukminas, Daleiden, Nabor, Ingram) set a new program record (2:47.64) and placed 12th overall, taking home another round of All-American Honorable Mentions.
