Kenyon Press Release
GRANVILLE, Ohio – Boosted by a win from junior Sophia Kuvan in the 200-yard freestyle, the Kenyon College women’s swimming and diving team took, and then lost, the lead to Denison University during Friday’s session of the North Coast Athletic Conference Championship, a four-day meet being held at Trumbull Aquatic Center.
The Ladies entered Friday night’s session trailing host Denison by 89 points and that lead grew to 97 points after the Big Red opened with a win in the 200-yard medley relay. The winning foursome clocked in at 1:43.16, edging the 1:43.45 posted by Kenyon’s team of Abby Chopp, Laura Duncan, Hollie Hopf and Zoe Toscos.
In the next event, the 400-yard individual medley, Kenyon shook off a disqualification and still managed to outscore the host 146-87. That narrowed Denison’s overall lead to 38 points. Kenyon’s top finishers in the race were junior Kanchi Desai, who took third in 4:28.82, freshman Sydney Matteson, who claimed fifth place in 4:29.66 and senior Amelia Loydpierson, who finished seventh in 4:31.84.
Denison then pushed its team lead back out to 66 points after Big Red swimmers claimed the top three spots in the 100-yard butterfly. Like the previous event, Kenyon had three top-eight finishers. Cecina Babich Morrow was fifth in 58.05, Chopp was sixth with a time of 58.22 and Princess Vilan Ferguson-Nguyen was eighth in 58.50.
Kenyon countered again, this time in the 200-yard freestyle. Highlighted by a winning time of 1:51.17 from Kuvan, four Ladies found placements among the race’s top-six finishers. Freshmen Julia Green and Kendall Vanderhoof placed second and third with respective times of 1:51.23 and 1:51.33, while another Kenyon freshman, Zoe Toscos, took sixth place with a time of 1:54.02. That Kenyon surge put the Ladies atop the team standings for the first time in the meet.
The Ladies’ 14-point advantage quickly disappeared, however, at the conclusion the 100-yard breaststroke. Duncan had a third-place finish (1:03.80) and Loydpierson took sixth (1:06.99), but their scores were overwhelmed by a Denison team that racked up 120 points in the event and reclaimed the team lead, 1,162-1,113.
The Big Red continued to extend their lead in the final two events of the evening, which were the 100-yard backstroke and one-meter diving. Denison scored three of the top-four finishes in the backstroke and five of the top six spots in the diving event. Kenyon saw Andjela Vasic and Chopp take third (58.58) and fifth (58.66) in the backstroke, followed by a fifth-place showing from Madeline Carlson on the diving board. She earned that spot with a score of 373.15.
By the end of the night Denison had 1,433 points. Kenyon was second with 1,213 points and DePauw University was a distant third with 782 points in the nine-team race.
On a side note, two Kenyon swimmers not directly tied to championship results set conference records. Thursday night in a time trial, junior Julia Wilson set the NCAC standard in the 100-yard breaststroke. Her time of 1:02.06 erased the old conference mark of 1:02.08, which Wilson established last season. Friday morning, during preliminary heats, sophomore Hannah Orbach-Mandel entered the 200-yard freestyle as an exhibition swimmer and turned in a conference-best time of 1:48.71, clipping the previous mark of 1:49.10 set in 2010 by Denison’s Alyssa Swanson.
The final day of the championship meet starts Saturday morning with preliminaries going off at 10 a.m. and final heats starting at 6:30 p.m.
GRANVILLE, Ohio – Freshman Ben Baturka had a runner-up finish in the 100 backstroke and swam a leg in the second place 200 medley relay as Kenyon College competed for the third day at the North Coast Athletic Conference Swimming and Diving Championship.
The Lords held their overall team standing of second place with 1,145 points while host Denison University remained in first with 1,299 points.
During the first event of the night – the 200 medley relay – Baturka teamed with AJ Reid, Austin Pu and Matthew Cooper to register a time of 1:30.34. That finish also met NCAA ‘B’ cut standards.
Later in the evening, Baturka secured his individual runner-up spot with a ‘B’ cut time of 49.89 in the 100 backstroke. In the same race, Oscar Anderson and Cooper followed in third and fourth place, respectively, with a couple more NCAA qualifying times.
Another first-year swimmer, Tommy Weiss, earned Kenyon’s third second-place finish of the evening. In the 100 butterfly, he touched the wall in 49.59. Cooper followed two spots later as he clocked in at 50.05.
The Lords’ final runner-up finish came from Gabriel Bellott-McGrath. During the 200 freestyle, he touched in 1:40.00 and met NCAA ‘B’ cut standards. Ambert Sawaya also registered a ‘B’ cut time in the same race.
Kenyon’s final top mark was registered by Brooks McCoy in the 400 individual medley. He completed the race with a season-best and ‘B’ time of 3:59.62 which put him in third. Freshman Colin Reardon also earned a qualifying time in the same race.
The final day of the NCAC Championship is tomorrow with prelims at 10 a.m. and finals at 6:30 p.m. at Trumbull Aquatics Center.
Denison Press Release
The Denison men swept all six events on Friday night at the 2017 North Coast Athletic Conference Swimming & Diving Championship. In the process, the Big Red extended their lead over Kenyon to 154 points through 13 of 21 events. Heading into the final day, Denison leads with 1,299 points and Kenyon is second with 1,145. DePauw trails in third place with 776.5 points and Wabash is fourth with 616.
Senior Jack Lindell defended his title in the 400 IM by holding off sophomore teammate Ryan Stevenson with a winning time of 3.56.35. Lindell pulled ahead with an impressive backstroke split, but Stevenson turned in a 53.07 split in the freestyle to get within .32 of Lindell, touching in 3:56.67. For the second-straight year, Lindell has captured both the 200 IM and the 400 IM. Prior to last year, no male swimmer had ever won both events in the same year. Following in fourth place was Matt Hedman (3:59.98). Francis Biagioli took fifth in 4:00.68 while Bebe Wang touched seventh in 4:03.88.
In the 100 backstroke, Jason Wesseling defended his crown with a season-best 'B' cut time of 49.20. It marked the 10th time in school history a Denison swimmer has won the event at the conference championship. Carson Clear finished in fifth place with a time of 50.79.
Three more individual event championships came from first-time winners in Kenny Fox, Walter Dauksher and Tiernan Foster-Smith.
Fox was the winner in the 100 fly as he led a group of five Denison swimmers to top-seven finishes. Fox touched in 49.42 for the win. Eric Gerlach was third at 50.00 and Wesseling was fifth in 50.15. Kymani Senior touched sixth with a time of 50.19 while Clear logged a seventh place finish in 50.42.
In the 200 freestyle, Dauksher became the 15th Denison swimmer to win the event after hitting the wall in 1:39.45. Stuart Hohm placed third in 1:40.11 while Zach Wagner posted a 'B' cut time of 1:40.41. Max Howes was sixth in 1:40.45 and Ben Burdick placed first in the B-Final with a time of 1:40.26.
Foster-Smith prevailed with a season-best 'B' cut time of 55.62 and Jake Ball took fourth in 56.94. It was the 12th time a DU swimmer has won the event and the fifth time out of the last six years. Damon Rosenburg won four-straight 100 breaststroke titles from 2012-15.
The night opened with a victory in the 200 medley relay as Clear, Foster-Smith, Fox and Wagner combined for a season-best time of 1:30.13 to win the event for fifth consecutive year. Wagner closed out the victory with a 20.01 50 free split.
Denison senior Carolyn Kane ran her career total of North Coast Athletic Conference Championships to 15 after a pair of wins on Friday night. Kane and the Big Red hold a 220 point lead over Kenyon College entering the final day of competition. Through 14 of 21 events, Denison has scored 1,433 points. Kenyon is second with 1,213 and DePauw is third with 782.
For the third-straight year, Kane is the champion of the 100 fly. She held off first-year teammate Angela Le for the win, touching in 55.63. Le finished in 56.25 which was a new career-best and a 'B' cut performance. In third, Zoe Whelan ended in 57.64 and Eva Jorn rounded out the A-Final with a ninth place showing and a time of 58.79. For Kane, her 15 conference championships moved her into third place all-time in the Denison record books. She trails only Olivia Zaleski (19) and Alyssa Swanson (18).
The 200 medley relay, Casey Kirby, KT Kustritz, Le and Kane recorded a winning time of 1:43.16. That was the eighth win in the 200 medley relay for Denison since 2008.
On Wednesday night, first-year diver Allison Fitzgerald won the 3-meter board and tonight she completed the sweep with a victory on the 1-meter board. She posted an 11-dive score of 465.05, breaking the school record that had been held by Kelly Frazier since 2013.
Denison's divers occupied five of the top six positions in the final standings of the 1-meter. Trailing Fitzgerald, Emma Weber logged a score of 431.25. Senior Sarah Lopez posted an all-conference finish by placing third with a score of 4:15.75. Naomi Clayton took fourth in 377.60 and Katherine Hennigan finished sixth in 370.00. DU's divers doubled their lead from 110 points entering the event to 220 points afterward.
KT Kustritz continued to make her case for NCAC Newcomer of the Year after her victory in the 100 breaststroke. Kustritz won with a time of 1:02.86, marking her fifth first-place finish of the meet. Kate Mesaros followed in second with a season-best 'B' cut time of 1:03.13. Ellen Higdon also logged her best time with a 'B' cut in 1:04.53. Gabriella Nutter rounded out the scoring in the 100 breast by placing eighth in 1:08.10.
The fifth win of the night came in the 100 backstroke as Kirby locked up her first individual NCAC title in 56.67. Once again, Le placed second in 57.33 which was a season-best 'B' cut time. Kurkjian finished fourth in 58.65 while Zoe Whelan closed out the A-Final with a ninth-place finish and a time of 1:00.27.
Senior Halli Garza posted a runner-up finish in the 400 IM with a time of 4:28.54. Natalie Zaravella ended up fourth in 4:29.36 and Erica Hsu landed in sixth after her time of 4:31.59. The winner of the 400 IM was DePauw's Angela Newlon in 4:26.27 after Kenyon's Marysol Arce was disqualified for a non-simultaneous touch on the far wall.
Kenyon made a move in the 200 freestyle by totaling 123 points in the event. That allowed the Ladies to move into the overall lead by 14 points, momentarily. For DU in the event, senior Campbell Costley placed fifth (1:52.92) and Alex Elizeus was eighth in 1:55.92.
