Kenyon College put the finishing touches on its 22nd national championship in women’s swimming Saturday, as the Ladies scored 177 points on the final day of the NCAA Div. III Championships, held at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, for a three-day total of 566.5. Kenyon, which now has won two titles in a row to go with a three-year streak earlier this decade (2002-04) and a 17-year run from 1984-2000, nearly doubled-up its nearest competitor, with runner-up Amherst College scoring 341, followed by third-place Denison University (328).

Kaitlyn Meirs got Kenyon off to a strong start Saturday, as the freshman distance specialist was the lone competitor to swim the 1650 freestyle in under 17 minutes, recording a winning time of 16:52.90.

Next, Amherst senior Brittany Sasser earned the sweep in the backstroke events, as she cruised to first-place in the 200 with a national-meet record time of 1:56.33, more than five seconds ahead of the runner-up (2:01.44). Sasser also won and set a new record in the 100 back on Friday (53.85).

Sasser’s freshman teammate, Kendra Stern, won her third individual national championship of the weekend, besting the field in the 100 freestyle with a time of 49.78 Saturday. She emerged victorious in the 500 free (4:52.34) on Thursday and the 200 free (1:47.19) Friday.

Another triple-event winner was Washington & Jefferson College’s Kaitlyn Orstein, as she capped her fabulous career with a win in Saturday’s 200 breaststroke (2:16.29). She also took this year’s 200 IM (2:00.27) and 100 breast (1:02.35), elevating her career total to eight national championships.

Rounding out Saturday’s champions were Marika Ross of Middlebury College in the 200 butterfly (2:01.49), Tufts University’s Kendall Swett in three-meter diving (509.30), and Amherst’s 400 freestyle relay of Stern, Sasser, Erin Morrison, and Meaghan Stern (3:23.64), the latter two setting national-meet records.

For their efforts, Sasser and Swett were named the Swimmer and Diver of the Meet, respectively. Swett also was the champion on the one-meter board (455.20) earlier in the meet. Coach-of-the-Year honors went to Amherst’s Nick Nichols for swimming and Tuft’s Brad Snodgrass for diving.