Tomita Ascending Toward Potential Nationals Appearance

The close of the first semester of the 2025-26 season was a very good one for Ashland University sophomore Yasmim Tomita.
 
At Davenport's Don Kimble Invitational prior to Thanksgiving, Tomita broke the school record in the women's 200-yard backstroke – touching the finish line in 2:02.47. That, and her winning women's 100 back time of 56.23, also were NCAA "B" cuts for the 2026 NCAA Division II Championships, in Evansville, Ind., on March 10-14.
 
"Honestly, I wasn't expecting to swim that fast that weekend," Tomita admitted. "I feel like having all of my teammates and having all of the support from the entire team helped me a lot during that week."
 
Tomita's season-best times rank 23^rd (200 back) and 28^th (100 back) in the nation, respectively, through Jan. 14.
 
Coming from Brazil, Tomita said there were things she needed to get acclimated to at Ashland.
 
"I had never been in Ohio before," she said. "It's been an experience. I'm really cold all the time, and the weather is kind of crazy compared to what I'm used to back home, so I think definitely the weather. And I used to do a lot of open-water meets back home, so we used to train for distance. And now, I'm doing more backstroke-focused and mid-distance-focused training, and I think that's helped me a lot.
 
"There was a lot of changes, and I'd never swam in yards before."
 
First-year head coach Sydney Laughlin said training has been the difference for Tomita so far in 2025-26.
 
"I think the training has helped a little bit," Laughlin said. "As with any freshman coming in, it's kind of a learning experience your first year, because it's different than the training you grow up with.
 
"Just using different equipment and different ways of training has helped a lot, having a little bit more of a steady training style."
 
The recent success at nationals for junior diver Riley Hunt has swimmers like Tomita wanting to taste that, too.
 
"I think it motivates everybody to see how far they can get," she said. "It just makes it more exciting to make the program better. Everybody cheers for everybody, so if someone gets a cut, the entire team is happy with that.
 
"That really motivated me. I realized that I didn't want to be out of that (nationals) this year."
 
Said Laughlin of Tomita going to nationals, "We have the high potential of it. I think it can be really exciting."
 
And Tomita does have time to improve on her times – and possibly earn a nationals "A" cut – prior to the selections of who goes to nationals.
 
"There are a lot of things I can improve on my 200 backstroke," she said. "There's a lot more real potential on my 200. This year, I want to drop times at conference."