Denison trails Kenyon by 40 points following Thursday's events at the 2014 North Coast Athletic Conference Championships from the Trumbull Aquatics Center on the campus of Denison University.  The Big Red scored 535 points and captured two event titles.

DU's biggest performance came in the 200 Individual Medley where senior Natalie Lugg captured her fourth NCAC Championship with a meet-record time of 2:03.06.  Lugg, who won her first 200 IM crown, bested the conference mark set by teammate Michelle Howell a season ago.  The senior's meet-record performance was also a season-best "B" cut.

Howell trailed Lugg in second place with a season-best time of 2:06.18, while Libby Dalziel and Marissa Bednarek also posted their best times of the year.  Dalziel took fourth after touching in at 2:06.68, while Bednarek's time of 2:07.28 was good enough for eighth place.  Junior Lucy Roth won the consolation final after finishing the heat in 2:08.31.

In addition to Lugg's victory in the 200 IM, the Big Red also won the first event of the evening, the 200 freestyle relay.  The foursome of Carolyn Kane, Ashley Yearwood, Claire Van Fossen and Morgan Nuess posted strong "B" cut performance with a season-best time of 1:32.93.  Yearwood registered the fastest split time after finishing the second leg in 23.01.

Denison followed up its relay win with three top-7 performances in the 500-yard freestyle.  Freshman Campbell Costley paced DU with a runner-up finish in the event.  Costley logged a season-best time of 4:53.18, shaving 2.8 seconds off her preliminary time.  Taylor Johns took fourth after touching in at 4:53.42, while Tully Bradford's time of 5:03.55 landed her in seventh place.  Bradford's performance was a season-best performance.

In the 50 freestyle, the Big Red produced five top-7 finishes which helped them pull within three points of Kenyon through event nine.  Kane took home the silver after touching the wall at 23.51.  She posted her best time of the day in the prelims (23.26).  Nuess and Mary Van Leuven took third and fourth, respectively.  Nuess logged a time of 23.67, while Van Leuven's time of 23.68 was a season-best performance.  Yearwood and Rima Jurjus rounded out the top-7 for DU.  Yearwood finished sixth (23.83), while Jurjus checked in at 23.94.

Freshman Carrie Bookheimer placed third in the women's 3-meter dive on Thursday night after posting an 11-dive score of 358.  Defending national champion Maria Zarka of Kenyon won the event with an NCAA Regional qualifying score of 456.65.

In the final event of the night, the 400 medley relay team of Molly Willingham, Lugg, Kane and Yearwood finished second with a combined time of 3:47.42.  Kenyon added eight points to its lead after capturing the event title with a time of 3:44.88.

In the overall team standings, Kenyon sits atop the nine-team field with 575 points followed by Denison and third-place DePauw, who compiled 327 points.  Spots four through seven are occupied by Wooster (228), Oberlin (222), Wittenberg (220) and Allegheny (200).

Friday's events include the 200 medley relay, 400 individual medley, 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle, 100 breaststroke, 100 backstroke, and the 800 free relay.  Preliminaries are scheduled to begin at 10 a.m., while the finals will start at 6:30 p.m.