The Denison women withstood a charge from rival Kenyon College and maintained its lead at the 2015 North Coast Athletic Conference Championship from the Trumbull Aquatics Center. Led by four event championships and 10 top-3 finishes, DU holds a 141 point lead over Kenyon heading into Saturday's final day. Denison has totaled 1,349 points through 14 of 20 events. Kenyon is second with 1,208 points while DePauw sits in third with 823 points.
In the grueling 400 individual medley it was Taylor Johns who closed the gap over the final 25 yards of freestyle swimming to edge out DePauw's Angela Newlon and her teammate Michelle Howell. Over the final 50 yards, Johns posted a 27.93 split which resulted in a time of 4:24.48. Newlon was just one hundredth of a second behind at 4:24.49. Howell touched in 4:24.63 from lane one while Leigh Hartog rounded out DU's top performers with a sixth-place finish and a time of 4:28.59.
Sophomore Carolyn Kane would follow Johns with a victory in the 100 butterfly. That marked the third career conference title for Kane, but the first non-relay win of her young career. After a time of 55.71 in morning prelims, Kane would touch in 55.84 in the finals. Krysta Garbarino followed in second in 56.65 while Taylor Lifka posted a sixth-place finish in 57.43. After the 100 fly, Kenyon had pulled in front by 38 points in the team standings.
All of that would change in the pivotal 200 freestyle where DU would go on to score 165 points thanks to taking five out of the top-seven spots. Sophomore Campbell Costley was the winner in 1:50.15. That was her second individual event title of this year's championship after Thursday night's triumph in the 500 free. Teammate Alex Elizeus was the runner-up in 1:51.58 while Kate Wright (1:52.59) and Molly Willingham (1:53.00) finished fourth and fifth, respectively. The event was rounded out by Mary Van Leuven in seventh (1:53.57) and Eliza Flaherty who ended in 14th (1:55.52).
More points would be accrued in the 100 backstroke where Ashley Yearwood, Willingham, Wright and Rima Jurjus finished in second, fourth, seventh and 12th, respectively. Yearwood's time of 56.72 paced the group. Willingham checked in at 57.68 while Wright ended in 58.70.
Heading into the 1-meter diving finals the Big Red had opened up an 80-point lead in the team standings.
On the 1-meter board, Sarah Lopez would again place second to Kenyon's Maria Zarka with an 11-dive score of 390.15. Zarka set a new pool record with a score of 456.90. Also scoring for Denison was Carrie Bookheimer and Katherine Hennigan who finished in fifth and sixth, respectively. Bookheimer totaled a score of 347.50 while Hennigan finished in 338.00.
The fifth final on Friday night was the 100 breaststroke and a pair of DU swimmers finished in the middle of the A-Final as Marissa Bednarek took fourth (1:04.26) and Ellen Higdon (1:04.57) took fifth. The night was opened up by the 200 medley relay team of Kane, Higdon, Yearwood and Van Leuven. That group would combine for a season-best time of 1:42.87 which was good for second place.
The Big Red would close out the night on a high note by taking the title in the 800 free relay with a pool record time of 7:27.33. DePauw would finish second in the relay with a time of 7:29.17 followed by Kenyon at 7:36.01. Swimming of Denison's 800 free relay was Costley, Johns, Wright and Elizeus. The DU time was a new pool record and bested their previous season best by over three seconds.
This year's championship will conclude on Saturday with preliminaries at 10 a.m. followed by finals at 6:30 p.m.
