It's halftime at the 2014 NCAA Swimming & Diving Championship and the Denison women sit in fourth place with a score of 208. Emory University leads the championship with 273 points while Johns Hopkins sits in second with 232 points. Thanks to a second-place finish by sophomore diver Maria Zarka in the 1-meter dive, Kenyon vaulted the Big Red in the standings. The Ladies now sit third overall with 213 points.
Denison's top finish on the night came from junior Michelle Howell who placed third in the 400 individual medley with a time of 4:20.96. The finish marked her third-consecutive top-3 showing in the event at the national championship. Howell was the runner-up in 2012 and 2013.
In the consolation final of the 400 IM, Taylor Johns swam an impressive 100 freestyle split of 56.09 to close the gap and win the heat. Her ninth-place finish and overall time of 4:25.10 picked up nine points, and helped Denison move to within 32 points of the Emory Eagles as the meet moved on to the 100 butterfly.
In the 200 freestyle, first-year Campbell Costley would pick up her second All-America certificate of the meet by placing fifth in 1:50.48. Costley entered the championship seeded eighth in the event with a season-best time of 1:51.26. In the consolation heat, Molly Willingham finished third, resulting in an 11th place finish. Willingham touched in 1:51.52 to pick up six points for DU, while also marking the ninth All-American swim of her career.
The night's first event was the 200 freestyle relay and the team of Carolyn Kane, Mary Van Leuven, Ashley Yearwood and Morgan Nuess placed third in 1:32.83. Denison entered the finals with the fastest preliminary time (1:33.31), despite dropping nearly half a second from their time, the Big Red would take the bronze. Johns Hopkins won the race in 1:32.38 and Kenyon took second in 1:32.81.
The final race of the night was the 400 medley relay and the DU team of Willingham, Natalie Lugg, Howell and Kane took bronze with a time of 3:45.14. That time was nearly a two-second drop off their fifth-seeded time of 3:46.93 entering the meet. First-place in the relay went to Johns Hopkins who touched in 3:42.90.
The Big Red will return for day-3 at 10 a.m. with preliminaries in the 200 butterfly, 100 backstroke, 100 breaststroke, and the 800 free relay. Finals will begin on Friday at 6 p.m.
