On the third night of the NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championship held last week in Greensboro, North Carolina, sophomore Douglas Kogut captured the 200-yard butterfly national title with a time of 1:47.28. His mark earned him All-America honors, a new MIT standard, and new personal record.
MIT’s first 200-fly national champion, Kogut is the second men’s swimmer to claim an individual national championship. The only other Engineer to accomplish this feat was Wyatt Ubellacker '13, who won both the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly in 2013.
Kogut began the day with the third-fastest qualifying time, 1:48.45, in preliminary action, which at the moment was a season-best and career-best for the sophomore. He then shaved 1.17-seconds off his mark in the championship final, touching the wall in first place with a time of 1:47.28 for the victory.
Over the course of the four-day meet, Kogut earned two All-America awards (200-butterfly and 200-backstroke) with the team as a whole totaling 30 All-America honors. The MIT men’s swimming and diving team finished fifth at the championship with 241.50 points, the fifth time in the last six years in which the Engineers placed in the top-five teams at the national meet.
