Division III Relays Appeared to Commit Blatant False Starts in 2025 NCAA Qualification
College swimming’s championship season is quickly approaching, meaning swimmers at all levels will be scrambling to achieve qualifying times for their respective NCAA Championships. Most qualifying swims will come at conference championship meets while those who fall just short often use Last Chance competitions to get sufficiently quick times prior to the deadline.
During the same stretch one year ago, two teams appeared to take advantage of insufficient and improper officiating at one Last Chance meet to qualify relays for the NCAA Division III Championships. At the Washington & Lee Last Chance meet, held Feb. 22, 2025, in Lexington, Va., swimmers from both the home team and Mary Washington appear to leave early on relay exchanges while pursuing their requisite times.
Video footage from the meet shows six different relays between the two schools committing at least one false start. None were disqualified. The repeated nature of the violations suggests swimmers were intentionally jumping early with the knowledge that they would not be disqualified. The event’s live stream shows these violations (timestamps included):
- Washington & Lee women’s 200 freestyle relay (12:50)
- Washington & Lee men’s 200 medley relay, butterfly to freestyle exchange (15:30 and 1:35:00)
- Mary Washington women’s 200 medley relay, butterfly to freestyle exchange (18:30, 1:53:20 and 2:22:00)
Perhaps the most glaring early takeoff came during the W&L men’s first attempt at qualification. In the video, a spectator can be heard reacting to the false start. He screamed, “Oh my God!” Moments later, the same man followed up with, “Are you kidding me?”
Swimming World has backup video of the Last-Chance meet in case the original content becomes unavailable at its current site.
Multiple Division III coaches made Swimming World aware of these repeated false starts. Live-stream video is not admissible evidence for determining disqualifications in swimming, but the obvious nature of these violations indicates that officials on deck should have been able to recognize them.
Sources indicated that this Last Chance meet had insufficient officials, and those who were working were relatives of a coaching staff member at W&L. That combination of circumstances presented a threat to competitive integrity, particularly when all three relays ended up qualifying for the national meet by their final attempt. Notably, all of these groups swam significantly slower times at the Division III national meet than they did in their repeated Last Chance attempts; the national meet took place at the Greensboro Aquatic Center with a full complement of officials and automatic timing equipment used to detect early takeoffs.
Swimming World contacted representatives from both schools to inquire about these uncalled false starts. An email from W&L athletic director Jan Hathorn, head swim coach Kami Gardner and athletic communications director Sydney Anderson did not address the specifics of the false starts but did admit to challenges obtaining sufficient officiating personnel and technology at this particular competition.
The trio representing the Generals’ program noted that they were unable to provide dual confirmation for relay exchanges. At least two officials must independently agree on any false starts at any swim meet where electronic timing and replay equipment is not available, but W&L was unable to provide that for this Last Chance meet. The school noted in the email that it would not host another invitational-style meet before obtaining pads that can electronically measure relay reaction time.
“The officials at our meet were certified officials who worked according to established protocols and NCAA rules. Over the course of several years, W&L has experienced limited officiating resources in our area, and we contract with these same officials to work any W&L home meets, and we contracted them for this meet exactly as we contract with any certified officials in our area based on availability.
“During the meet, there were no dual confirmations for relay exchanges, take-off pads were not available, and high-speed video review was neither required nor accessible.
“W&L has worked to implement changes moving forward. We have identified and secured additional officials from outside the immediate area to contract for our home meets. Additionally, because we have limited event management resources during championship season or access to take-off pad technology, we will only host future invitationals of this nature when secure advanced technology. We remain fully committed to upholding the high standards of our sport, program, and university.”
Swimming World attempted to follow up with to the W&L representatives to inquire about the egregious false starts, whether or not the school was aware of the false starts and whether the coaching staff encouraged swimmers to leave early, but the school did not comment further.
Mary Washington athletics director Patrick Catullo responded to Swimming World but did not comment on the specifics of his team’s apparent violations. Catullo discussed only the meet setup, indicating that Washington & Lee was in charge of officiating as the host school.
“As I understand it, swim officials were on site that day and they are responsible for identifying the false starts. The camera angles for video review were not available and reaction time pads were not used on the blocks either, so the only system in place for relay calls was the meet officials. UMW was not notified of any false starts for our 200 medley relays by either of the officials.”
This incident is a reminder that any competition where swimmers and relay teams can qualify for national-level competition, including Last Chance meets, must reach the required level of competitive integrity. No one should be achieving qualification at events where those standards are not met.
