Kenyon Finishes Year Atop Division III Poll

The words Kenyon College and Division III Champions have become synonymous over the years.  This week, when the Lords pursue their 30th consecutive NCAA team title and the Ladies vie for their twenty-third women's championship, they'll do so with another pair of titles - 2009 CSCAA/ CollegeSwimming.com Division IIII Dual Meet Champions.

The Lords claimed nineteen of twenty-three first-place votes to easily outdistance conference rival Denison University.  The Ladies, with fifteen of twenty first-place votes, held off Denison by just ten points.  Emory University finished third in both polls.
 
While Kenyon, Denison and Emory retained the top three spots, the season's final poll witnessed the biggest shake-up.  For the men' The College of New Jersey made its first appearance in the top five, moving up four spots to number four.  Johns Hopkins, Grove City, St. Olaf, and Hope rounded out swimming's Elite Eight.  Amherst College, leapt a dozen spots to enter the top ten at number niine while Washington University dropped five to complete the top ten.

On the womens' side, Williams College, winners of the NESCAC Championship, edged their conference rival Amherst for the fourth-spot.   Three teams enjoyed big jumps to make the top ten.  WIAC-Champion UW-LaCrosse rocketed eighteen spots up to number seven while MIAA-Champion Calvin moved up eight to number eight.  UW-Stevens Point enjoyed a similar rise - moving up six spots to complete the top ten.

All of these will assemble in Minneapolis this week for the first-ever combined men's and women's NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships.  The March 18-21 meet will crown the NCAA Champion.

Final Men's Division III Swimming Dual Meet Poll

Rank	School	Points	Prev
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25	Kenyon (19) Denison (4) Emory University TCNJ Johns Hopkins Grove City St. Olaf College Hope College Amherst Washington University Williams College UW-Stevens Point Kalamazoo MIT Middlebury College Washington and Lee Tufts University New York University UC Santa Cruz Gustavus Adolphus Carthage Connecticut College DePauw Carnegie Mellon Puget Sound	571 554 450 414 400 381 349 340 336 322 322 319 313 239 156 155 144 142 126 118 106 92 88 78 69	1 3 2 8 4 9 6 12 21 5 7 10 15 17 13 19 22 11 NR 20 24 NR 18 14 NR
Also Receiving Votes: UW-LaCrosse 44, Chicago 44, Alfred 38, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 37, Whitworth 33, St. Thomas 33, Stevens Institute 30, Luther 27, Springfield 26, Centre 25, Mary Washington 22, Westminster (PA) 21, Wheaton (IL) 20, Redlands 20, Carleton 19, Calvin 15, Olivet 12, Merchant Marine Academy 6, Ohio Northern 6, Wabash 5, SUNY Geneseo 4, Coast Guard Academy 4, Trinity (TX) 2, Washington & Jefferson 1

Final Women's Division III Swimming Poll

Rank	School	Points	Prev
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25	Kenyon (15) Denison (5) Emory University Williams College Amherst Johns Hopkins UW-LaCrosse Calvin UW-Stevens Point Hope College Claremont-Mudd-Scripps SUNY Geneseo Washington University Springfield College Centre College Carthage Stevens Institute Carnegie Mellon Middlebury College Carleton Ithaca College New York University TCNJ Westminster DePauw	494 484 446 440 418 345 295 290 251 241 211 208 216 181 165 164 153 135 125 118 118 86 69 65 60	1 3 2 4 5 6 25 16 15 8 20 21 12 14 9 11 NR 19 7 NR NR NR 10 NR 13
Also Receiving Votes: Mary Washington 50, Whitworth 45, Wheaton (IL) 40, MIT 30, UC Santa Cruz 30, Colby 28, Tufts 24, Washington and Lee 23, Chicago 20, Gustavus Adolphus 18, Luther 15, St. Thomas 13, Puget Sound 10, St. Olaf 10, SUNY New Paltz 6, Union 6, Wheaton (MA) 6, Connecticut 5, Washington & Jefferson 5, Alfred 1, Ohio Northern 1, Trinity (TX) 1