A Year After Finals DQ, Cooper Costello Becomes First D3 Swimmer Under 46 Seconds In 100 Fly ...Middle East

By Sophie Kaufman on SwimSwam

2025 NCAA DIII Swimming and Diving Championships

This time last year, Cooper Costello looked at the scoreboard after the championship final of the men’s 100 butterfly in shock. He had been disqualified for a false start—a crushing realization at his first NCAA DIII Championships mixed with celebration for his Chicago teammate Jesse Ssengonzi, who won the race in a DIII record (46.28).

A year later, it’s Costello’s turn to stand atop the podium, as he bounced back from that disappointment by swimming a DIII recod of his own. He dominated what was expected to be a close four-way race in the men’s 100 butterfly final, pulling away from the field and becoming the first man in DIII history to crack the 46-second barrier in the 100 butterfly. He took .31-seconds off Sengonzi’s record with a blistering 45.97 and kept the title in Chicago for another year.

Costello came into the championships with a 46.59 lifetime best from winning the UAA Championships last month. He undercut that effort in prelims with a 46.44. The swim secured him lane four for tonight’s championship final. He put the hammer down early, splitting 21.39 in the first 50. That split opened a .10 second gap on him and the rest of the field, as last night’s 200 IM champion Brayden Morford began his race in 21.49.

The split put Costello .21 seconds ahead of Ssengonzi’s record pace, as the Ugandan Olympian opened his record-setting swim in 21.60. Costello turned in a field-best 24.58 second 50 yards, widening the gap betwenn himself and his competitiors. It also put more distance between himself and the DIII record as Ssengonzi closed in 24.68.

Cooper won by over half a second, as Calvin senior David Bajwa placed second in 46.54. It came down to the touch for the second step of the podium as only four-hundredths separated Bajwa, Justin Finkel (46.56), and Morford (46.48).

This is Costello’s first NCAA DIII title. Last year after his disappointment in the 100 butterfly, he rallied with a fifth-place finish in the 200 butterfly. Yesterday, he earned his highest NCAA finish—to that point—by placing third in the 200 IM (1:46.53). Up next, he will duel Finkel, the defending champion and DIII record holder, in the 200 butterfly.

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