The Denison women's swimming & diving team suffered a 175-123 setback to NCAA Division I opponent, Ohio University on Friday night at the Trumbull Aquatics Center. The Big Red won four events and logged seven runner-up finishes.
Denison was led by sophomore Campbell Costley who swept both distance freestyle events. Costley won the 1000 free in 10:13.92 and took first in the 500 free in 5:00.35. Her time in the 500 freestyle was an NCAA provisional qualifying time, however it was slower than her season-best time of 4:51.84 set at the Miami Invitational in December. Finishing as the runner-up to Costley in both distance free events was Taylor Johns who touched in 10:14.32 in the 1,000 and 5:02.85 in the 500. Mae Riordan finished third in the 1,000 free (10:43.76) and Alex Elizeus touched fourth in the 500 (5:12.95).
Denison's other individual win came from Carolyn Kane in the 50 freestyle where she beat teammate Mary Van Leuven to the wall with a time of 24.04. Van Leuven checked in second in 24.15 while Rima Jurjus placed fourth in 24.78.
DU closed out the meet with a win in the 200 free relay as the foursome of Jurjus, Ashley Yearwood, Van Leuven and Carolyn Kane won with a time of 1:36.24.
In the pair of diving events, Denison's four divers would occupy positions 2-5 in the standings on the 1-meter and 2-4 in the 3-meter board. In the 1-meter, Sarah Lopez took second with a six-dive score of 202.05. Carrie Bookheimer was third in 185.48 while Katherine Hennigan (170.78) and Sterling Keiser (157.80) rounded out places 4-5, respectively.
On the 3-meter board, Lopez was the runner-up with a score of 200.78 while third and fourth place went to Hennigan (196.13) and Bookheimer (186.53), respectively.
Denison's other top swimming performances would come from Marissa Bednarek who logged a pair of second-place swims in the 200 breaststroke (2:25.38) and the 200 IM (2:11.66). Ellen Higdon would check in sixth in the 200 breast in 2:30.91 while Michelle Howell added a fourth-place swim in the 200 IM in 2:13.00. Bednarek would also contribute a third-place finish in the 100 breaststroke (1:07.31) and swam on the runner-up 400 medley relay team along with Carolyn Kane, Howell and Yearwood.
In the 100 free, Carolyn Kane landed in second place thanks to a time of 52.69. Yearwood would finish fifth in the event (54.00). Yearwood's best individual finish came in the 100 backstroke where she took third in 1:00.51. Elizabeth Kane touched fourth in 1:00.58 and Keely Lovern was fifth in 1:02.00.
Krysta Garbarino posted two fourth-place finishes in both butterfly events. In the 100 fly, Garbarino touched in 58.44 while Taylor Lifka (59.31) and Halli Garza (59.65) followed in fifth and sixth place, respectively. In the 200 fly, Garza would take third in 2:06.10 while Garbarino followed in fourth (2:07.69) and Steph Munoz took fifth in 2:09.96.
In the 200 backstroke, Libby Dalziel and Elizabeth Kane placed fourth and fifth, respectively. Dalziel covered the eight lengths in 2:12.10 while Kane finished in 1:13.81.
Rounding out the results was Elizeus and Kate Wright who logged third and fifth place finishes respectively in the 200 freestyle. Elizeus completed the event in 1:56.46 while Wright touched in 1:57.75.
Denison will return to action on Saturday when they host North Coast Athletic Conference opponent, DePauw University, in a dual meet that will begin at 1 p.m. at the Trumbull Aquatics Center. This is the first dual meet between the Big Red and the Tigers since DePauw joined the NCAC.
