With four of 20 events in the books, Denison's women's swimmers currently sit in third place with 99 points. The Big Red trail second-place Johns Hopkins by one point, and first-place Emory by 28 points after six top-eight performances by the Big Red on Wednesday night.
Denison's top performance of the opening night came from first-year Carolyn Kane who posted a career-best time of 23.27 in the championship final of the 50 freestyle to place third overall. Kane entered the meet seeded sixth with a time of 23.34. It was the first All-American performance of her career, but not likely to be the last for the talented rookie from Excelsior, Minn. In morning prelims, senior Morgan Nuess missed the consolation final by one one-hundredth of a second after she placed 19th.
Denison has depth in the distance freestyle and the duo of Campbell Costley and Taylor Johns went on to place fourth and sixth, respectively in the 500 freestyle. Costley covered the 20-circuit race in 4:51.96 which was a career-best time. Johns' sixth-place time of 4:52.29 was also a season-best.
A pair of veterans entered the 200 individual medley finals as Michelle Howell checked in seeded fourth after prelims, and senior Natalie Lugg was seeded eighth. After the championship final, Howell would place fifth in 2:04.15 while Lugg held in eighth place with a time of 2:07.86. This is the third All-America swim for Lugg in the 200 IM, and the second for Howell.
The night's final event, the 200 medley relay, saw Molly Willingham, Lugg, Ashley Yearwood, and Nuess hit the wall in 1:43.59. That marked a one-spot improvement over last year's fourth place showing in the event.
Denison will return to the IU Natatorium on Thursday at 10 a.m. for preliminaries in the 200 free relay, the 400 IM, the 100 fly, the 200 free, and the 400 medley relay. Finals will begin at 6 p.m.
