Three Rensselaer student-athletes have earned the opportunity to compete for national championships, having qualified for the 2016 NCAA Division III Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships. Sophomores Shanny Lin and Danielle Sauve will both represent Rensselaer for the second straight year in swimming, while senior Maddie Miller will compete in diving. The championships will be held March 16-19 at the Greensboro Aquatic Center in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Lin will compete in the 200 individual medley, 100 butterfly, and 200 butterfly. She enters the championship ranked first in the 200-fly with a season-best and school record time of 2:01.15. She is 35th in the 100 butterfly (57.49) and 49th in the 200 individual medley (2:08.42).
She established the top Division III time in the 200 butterfly in winning at the Upstate New York State Collegiate Swimming Association Championship in mid-February. Lin also had her best 200-fly time as well as a personal-best in the 200 individual medley in that meet, in which she helped the Engineers to a runner-up finish. This season, she was Rensselaer’s top scorer, earning 335.50 points thanks to 18 victories, two second-place finishes, and three thirds.
Sauve swam in the 200 freestyle, 500 freestyle, and 100 freestyle at the 2015 NCAA Championship. This year in Greensboro, she will compete in the 100 freestyle, 500 freestyle, and 400 individual medley. She is currently 17th in the 400 individual medley (4:29.49), 26th in the 500 free (4:59.77), and 43rd in the 100 freestyle (52.46), establishing each of those marks at the New York state meet.
Sauve was second on the team in individual scoring with 326 points this season, including 14 victories, nine seconds, and four thirds. She was also second last year when she had a team-best 19 wins and compiled 336 points. She also had five second-place finishes and four thirds as a freshman.
Miller earned her first trip to the NCAA Championships with an automatic qualification following a pair of third-place finishes at the NCAA Northeast-North Division III Diving Regional. She earned a score of 435.95—less than a point from second place—in the 1-meter competition, a day after scoring 447.40 in the 3-meter event. Miller was an alternate to the national event in 2012-13.
This season, she had nine victories, three runner-ups, and two third-place finishes for 195 points, which was first on the team among divers.