WMVO Good Times Great Oldies
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Thursday night at the IU Natatorium, the Kenyon College Ladies won three more races, including two by records in relay competition and maintained their edge atop the leaderboard at the midway point of the 2022 NCAA Division III NCAA Swimming and Diving Championship.
With a slim, six-point cushion to work with, the Ladies jumped into the water and were all business, winning the evening’s first race, the 200-yard freestyle relay, and extending their team lead to 15 points. That winning Kenyon quartet, which clocked in with an NCAA record time of 1:30.39, was made up of Crile Hart, Sydney Geboy, Alexandra White and Emmie Mirus. They broke the previous NCAA record of 1:31.42 set by Emory University in 2016.
The lead, however, was short-lived. In the 400-yard individual medley, first-year Gabrielle Wei took third place with a personal-best 4:20.50, but swimmers from Denison placed fifth, sixth and seventh, helping give the Big Red a 169-166 edge on the scoreboard. In the same event, Kenyon’s Sophie Schmitz placed 12th in 4:26.17, sophomore Sydney McCallie placed 13th in 4:26.51 and first-year Jordan Herrera took 16th place with a time of 4:29.63.
Over the next three events, the lead continued to flip. Hart and Olivia Smith placed 1st and 4th, respectively, in the 100-yard butterfly. Hart clocked in at 53.21 and Smith touched in 54.62. Additionally, two Ladies, Celia Ford and Ania Axas, tied for 13th place, clocking in at 56.04. Those results gave Kenyon a 208-181 lead over Denison, while Emory University held down third place with 174 points.
In the 200-yard freestyle, the Kenyon women did not have any swimmers, while Denison placed three in the top-16 and reclaimed the overall team lead by 3.5 points. Following diving on the one-meter board, Denison bumped its lead over Kenyon to 9.5 points.
In one final lead flip, the Ladies finished off the night with another record-setting relay performance. This time it was Smith, Hart, Mirus and Jennah Fadley clocking in at 3:38.05 to win the evening-ending 400-yard medley relay. Their time clipped the previous NCAA record of 3:39.57 set by Emory in 2017.
In two days, the Ladies won all three relays in NCAA record times. They’ll head to day-three of competition in first place with 248 points, just ahead of Denison, which has 245.5 points. Emory is third with 215 points, Williams is fourth with 149 and Pomona-Pitzer is fifth with 134.
