The Denison Big Red women closed out the 2012 NCAA Division III Swimming & Diving Championship with their best day from a performance standpoint, totaling 120 points on the night en route to a third-place team finish.
Emory University ran away with the team title with 639 points and Williams College held off DU with 453 points. Thirty-three points behind Williams was Denison with 420 points while fourth-place belonged to Kenyon with 360 points.
Senior Hilary Callen closed out a stellar career with a runner-up finish in the 1650 freestyle. A 17-time All-American and a two-time national champion, Callen's second-place finish and time of 16:42.61 was a career-best in the mile. The time also broke a school record that had stood for 11 years.
In the 200 backstroke, senior Emily Schroeder turned in Denison's second runner-up performance. Schroeder bested her own school record with a time of 1:58.98. Following in sixth-place was Lindsay Zeberlein in 2:00.59 and Victoria Masney in 14th place (2:04.35).
Twenty-five points were scored in the 100 freestyle thanks to Morgan Nuess' eighth-place swim in 51.87. Senior Brenna Broadus and Marit Wangstad followed in 13th and 16th place, respectively.
The 200 breaststroke saw Natalie Lugg place seventh in 2:19.16 and first-year Katie Collins became an All-American for the first time after placing 16th in the 3-meter dive. Collins totaled a score of 379.80 and that was good enough to land in the scoring column for the Big Red.
The meet was closed out by Wangstad, Nuess, Molly Willingham and Broadus in the 400 free relay and the group touched in third place with a time of 3:24.39. That sent Denison home with the program's fifth-straight top-3 finish. It was also Denison's 16th top-3 finish in program history.
Despite losing junior standout Alyssa Swanson to an injury over the final two days of competition, the Big Red still challenged for second-place and got a number of impressive swims from first-time qualifiers Michelle Howell and Molly Willingham and Schroeder and Callen displayed outstanding senior leadership throughout the meet.
