Through 15 of 20 events at the 2015 NCAA Division III Swimming & Diving championships, the Denison women remain in second place with 320 points. At the midway point, defending champion Emory University held a 71.5 point lead. On Friday night the Eagles pushed that lead out to 136 points entering the final day. The real race appears to be for second place where DU leads third place Williams College by 14 points. Kenyon sits in fourth with 269 points and Johns Hopkins is fifth with 182 points.
Six more All-American performances highlighted Friday night for Denison. First-year Halli Garza broke the Denison record in the 200 butterfly in preliminaries with a time of 2:01.09. She would post a time of 2:02.33 in the finals to finish sixth overall. Denison's star of the meet thus far, Michelle Howell, picked up her 15th career All-American certificate with a 10th place showing in the 200 fly. Howell trimmed 0.73 seconds off her prelim time to touch in 2:02.86.
In the 100 backstroke, Ashley Yearwood notched her fifth All-American performance of the meet and her first career A-A swim in the 100 back with a time of 56.19. She would finish third in the consolation final and 11th overall. Following in 15th place was senior Molly Willingham in 56.79.
Junior Marissa Bednarek qualified for the championship final of the 100 breaststroke after a time of 1:03.53 in morning trials. She would drop two-tenths off that time to finish seventh in 1:03.38. Last season, Bednarek finished 15th in the event. She dropped 2.29 seconds off of last years' time. This is the fourth All-American swim of the meet for Bednarek and the seventh of her career.
The night was wrapped up by a fifth-place showing in the 800 free relay. Campbell Costley, Taylor Johns, Alex Elizeus and Willingham posted a season-best time of 7:22.41 to pick up 28 points toward the team total.
So far the Big Red have racked up 23 All-American performances to go along with three event national titles.
Denison will return on Saturday for the 1,650 freestyle, 100 freestyle, 200 backstroke, 200 breaststroke and the 400 free relay. Preliminaries begin at 11 a.m. EST with finals starting at 7 p.m. EST.
