The Purple Reign is over. With a 78.5 point lead over Kenyon, the Emory Eagles are a day away from becoming just the second team to upset the Ladies in NCAA Competition. The biggest story might not be the upset. After all, Denison broke the string in 2000 and Emory's brought bigger squads for years. No, the word of the meet is parity. Nipping on the heels of Kenyon's 215 points are Denison (192.5), Williams (187.5), and Amherst (181). As Kenyon mentor Jim Steen said this afternoon, "a lot of different teams bringing good swims to the table."

Kenyon's bid for a fourth straight title in both the 200 Medley and 800 Freestyle Relays was foiled first by Williams in the medley and then by Emory in the 800. Liz Chiang gave Amherst a slight lead but Lindsay Payne gave Williams the lead and they never looked back, winning in 1:46.00 to Emory's 1:46.64.

In the 400 IM, Kaitlyn Orstein picked up a gold medal to go along with her gold in the 200 IM. She took the lead from the first stroke and never looked back, distancing the field by 2.5 seconds.

Jill Boo of Denison won the 100 fly (56.69) for the third straight year. A Denison swimmer has now won the 100 butterfly each of the last five years. She'll graduate, but the string of titles could continue for the Big Red as teammate Mary Catherine Dain finished second with two years ahead of her.

The biggest shocker of the night came in the 200 freestyle where Carleton's Marie Marsman was unable to defend her title. She suffered her first-ever loss in the event to a D-3 opponent when Calvin's Becky Weima lead coast-to-coast. Marsman did, however, manage to hold off a hard-charging Kate Kovenock who outsplit her 28.62 to 29.26 in the last 50.

Williams' Payne won the 100 breaststroke for the third time in her career. She was unable to match her NCAA record set at the NESCAC championships, but did get the meet record in the prelims. Ornstein finished a second back.

Brittany Sasser, a freshman from Amherst, won the backstroke in 56.03. Jessica Yankura of Williams finished a distant second.

In the final event of the night, Emory snapped Kenyon's four-year run in the 800 freestyle relay. The Ladies led for the first half of the race, but then Dana Inserra and Holly Hinz took care of business, putting a 1.2 second lead on the Ladies.