Michelle Howell captured her first career national championship leading the way for six individuals to log top-7 showings as the 2015 NCAA Division III Swimming & Diving Championship opened in Shenandoah, Texas. Through five events, Denison sits in second place with 124 points. They trail first place Emory by only 11.5 points heading into day two of four. Third-place currently belongs to Kenyon College with 95 points. Williams College sits in fourth with 94 points while Johns Hopkins rounds out the top five with 68 points.
In the second event of the night, Howell, a senior from Albuquerque, N.M., entered the 200 individual medley as the No. 2 seed after a time of 2:02.15 in morning preliminaries. That time alone trimmed 2.43 seconds off her entry time. In the finals, Howell opened with a 26.25 split in the fly and followed with a 31.14 split in the backstroke. She built a nearly two second lead after the breaststroke and closed things out with a 29.05 split in the freestyle which was enough to hold off second-place Emma Waddell of Williams by one second.
This marked the first national championship for Howell and her 13th career All-American swim. In two previous swims in the 200 IM at nationals she placed fifth (2014) and third (2013). She is also the first Denison female to win a 200 IM national title since Liz Cooper accomplished the feat in 1988.
In the consolation final of the 200 IM, Marissa Bednarek finished fourth which resulted in a 12th place overall finish after a time of 2:04.99. That marks All-America certificate No. 4 for the junior from Madison, Wis.
The points and impressive performances continued to roll in with the next event, the 50 yard freestyle. Sophomore Carolyn Kane entered the night as the top seed after breaking Kristen Hohl's six-year-old school record in prelims with a time of 22.84 seconds. In the final, Kane went toe-to-toe with Johns Hopkins' Anastasia Bogdanovski only to be edged out at the wall. Bogdanovski touched in 22.85 while Kane finished as the runner-up in 22.94.
Also competing in the championship final of the 50 free were juniors Mary Van Leuven and Ashley Yearwood. The Denison duo ended 6-7, respectively. Van Leuven completed the down and back in 23.46 while Yearwood was right behind in 23.60. The trio scored 42 points toward the Big Red's cause and after the event Denison trailed first-place Emory by only seven points (103-96).
In the opening event of the championship, Denison's distance freestyle tandem of Campbell Costley and Taylor Johns repeated as All-Americans in the 500 freestyle. Costley ended the race in fifth place after a tie of 4:50.93 while Johns trailed in sixth after touching in 4:51.41. This marks the seventh All-American award for Johns and the fifth for Costley who debuted in the event last year with a fourth-place finish. In the consolation final of the 500 free, rookie Alex Elizeus became an All-American with a 15th place finish and time of 4:58.77. The trio scored 29 points in the event.
The night was capped off by the 200 medley relay team of Kane, Bednarek, Yearwood and Van Leuven. After seeding fifth in trials with a time of 1:42.75, the team went on to place fifth in 1:42.24.
On Thursday, Denison will return to compete in the 200 free relay, the 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free and the 400 medley relay. Trials will begin at 11 a.m. EST with finals commencing at 7 p.m. EST.
