Saint John's senior diver Eli Grabinski and junior swimmer Brayden Slavik compete at the 2025 NCAA Division III Championships this Wednesday-Saturday (March 19-22) at the Greensboro Aquatic Center in Greensboro, N.C. – Live Results | Live Video

THE SCHEDULE: The two Johnnies are scheduled to compete at the following times this week.

Wednesday (all times CT)
-9 a.m. (prelims): 500-yard freestyle (Slavik), 3-meter dive (Grabinski)
     -5 p.m. (finals)

Thursday (all times CT)
-9 a.m. (prelims): 400-yard individual medley (Slavik)
     -5 p.m. (finals)

Friday (all times CT)
-9 a.m. (prelims): 1-meter dive (Grabinski)
     -5 p.m. (finals)

Saturday (all times CT)
-9 a.m. (prelims): 1,650-yard individual medley (Slavik)
     -5 p.m. (finals)

TO BE AN ALL-AMERICAN
Diving
All of the divers complete 11 dives in the morning prelim sessions. The top-eight scores automatically earn All-America honors and advance to do six more dives during the evening finals session. Ninth-16th, meanwhile, are All-America honorable mention and complete six more dives as part of the morning session.

Swimming
The top-16 times from the morning prelims advance to the evening as A (1-8) and B (9-16) finals. The swimmers in the A final are guaranteed to be All-Americans, while the B-final competitors are All-America honorable mention.

THE JOHNNIE DUO: Grabinski qualified for nationals with a fifth-place finish out of 17 participants in the 1-meter dive on the final day of the NCAA Central Regional back on March 1 at Denison (Ohio). He finished sixth in the 3-meter dive (443.60) a day earlier and is the first Johnnie diver to qualify for nationals since his older brother, Jack '23, in 2019-20.

Slavik, meanwhile, qualified for the NCAA Championships in the 1,650-yard freestyle. The 2025 MIAC Swimmer of the Year, Slavik broke three program records, including two of his own, to win the 400-yard individual medley (4:00.12), 500-yard freestyle (4:29.49) and 1,650-yard freestyle (15:32.98) as SJU finished second out of six teams Feb. 19-22 at the 2025 MIAC Championships. 

His time of 15:32.98 in the 1,650-yard freestyle was a meet-, SJU- and MIAC record time and cleared the NCAA B cut by nearly 18 seconds (15:50.88). It was also 10 seconds faster than the invited time from last year's NCAA Championships (15:43.03) and ninth-best in Division III this season.

FEATURE STORY: The Grabinski family has been synonymous with diving success at Saint John's University for several years now – first with Jack, a 2023 graduate; then with younger brother Eli, who is now in his senior season.

Between them, the duo has racked up six MIAC titles in the 1- and 3-meter events and won or shared conference diver-of-the-year honors four times.

But one thing neither of them has yet had the opportunity to do is compete at the NCAA Division III national meet. 

Jack qualified for nationals as a freshman in 2020, but the meet was canceled due to the onset of COVID-19. He earned All-American honors that season, and again as a sophomore, but the pandemic meant the national meet was called off that year as well. As a junior, he studied abroad in Chile during the second semester, missing the conference and regional meet. Then, as a senior, he just missed the cut at regionals – finishing as first alternate.

Eli, whose freshman season got off to a late start due to a fractured tibia, just missed nationals as a sophomore and again last season, when he too finished the region meet as first alternate.

This year, though, he finished fifth in the 1-meter and sixth in the 3-meter at the regional meet held Feb. 28-March 1 in Granville, Ohio. That performance was good enough to claim one of the region's six allocated male spots in the national meet, which gets underway Wednesday (March 19) and runs through Saturday (March 22) at the Greensboro Aquatic Center in Greensboro, N.C.

He enters the competition seeded sixth overall in both events. Competition in the 3-meter is scheduled for Wednesday with the 1-meter to follow on Friday.

"It feels pretty good to be here," Eli said. "I'm just excited to finally get the chance to do this before my time diving at Saint John's is done. There's a huge sense of accomplishment to finally make it over the hump."

SJU head coach Ben Gill also couldn't be happier to see a Grabinski finally getting the chance to compete at a national meet.

"This has been a long time coming, and to see Eli get that final notch really means a lot," Gill said. "He's been on the bubble the past two years, so it's nice to see all the hard work he's put in finally paying off. Our region is one of the deepest regions out there. There is so much talent, which means from where he's sitting, he has a really good shot at earning All-American honors."

Doing that will require a top eight finish in either or both of his events (places nine through 16 earn honorable mention distinction). That's a goal that certainly seems obtainable given his seeding.

"Earning All-America honors would be a great way to end my career, but if I can go out there and have a solid meet overall, that will be good enough for me," Eli said. "I know the competition is going to be really strong, and if I'm just able to have what I think was a good meet, I'm going to be happy with it."

So will the other members of the Grabinski family, who are making the trip to North Carolina to see him dive.

"That's going to be fun," said Eli, a physics major who is looking to land a job in the mechanical engineering field after he graduates this May. "I know they're excited to be there and to get to be part of this."

Eli will be joined at the national meet by junior teammate Brayden Slavik, who enters the competition seeded ninth in the 1,650-yard freestyle with a time of 15:32.98, 20th in the 500 freestyle with a time of 4:29.49 and 26th in the 400 individual medley with a time of 4:00.12. The 500 is scheduled for Wednesday, the 400 IM is scheduled for Thursday and the 1,650 is scheduled for Saturday.

"My goal is to get into the top eight in the (1,650)," said Slavik, who is also making his first appearance at nationals. "I'm seeded ninth, so hopefully that's a realistic goal."

Slavik – who was named MIAC co-men's swimmer of the year this season – won all three events at the conference meet Feb. 19-22 – setting new program marks in each.

"My hope with Brayden is that he is able to get experience and see what the national meet is like," Gill said. "Hopefully, he has the best meet he can and sets the foundation to build into something even better next season.

"I say that, but his last two weeks of training have been phenomenal. Even better than it was going into the conference meet. So I'm excited for him to go out there and see what happens."