After 13 of 20 events, Denison sits in second place at the North Coast Athletic Conference Swimming & Diving Championship with 1,177 points. They trail first-place Kenyon by 145 points heading into the final day of competition.
Kenyon might have made a move in the team standings, but that didn't stop the Big Red from winning three conference championships on Friday night.
Denison's first win came in the 200 medley relay as Carolyn Kane, Marissa Bednarek, Ashley Yearwood and Mary Van Leuven streaked to a season-best time of 1:42.50 marking the 12th time in school history DU has won this event. Van Leuven's 22.82 50 free split paved the way to the win.
The Big Red would get a repeat championship swim from Carolyn Kane in the 100 fly after her time of 56.23 marking her eighth career conference championship. Kane is the first Denison swimmer to go back-to-back in the 100 fly at the NCAC meet since Olivia Zaleski in 2009-10.
Following Carolyn Kane in the 100 fly was Stephanie Munoz in ninth place (59.21) and Erin Hudson in 15th (1:01.43).
Senior Ashley Yearwood has made her mark as one of the best relay swimmers in program history. On Friday night, she captured her second individual conference championship by winning the 100 backstroke in 56.48. That is the 11th conference championship, including relays, for Yearwood. Sixth-place would go to Elizabeth Kane in 58.34 while Libby Dalziel finished ninth in 59.48.
Four Denison swimmers would take part in the championship heat of the 400 IM as Halli Garza led the pack with a time of 4:27.60 that landed her in fourth place. The time was a season-best 'B' cut swim for Garza. Last year's champ, Taylor Johns, finished fifth in 4:31.00, while Emily Eiben took seventh in 4:36.76. Leigh Hartog rounded out the event in eighth with a time of 4:37.21.
Another foursome would represent Denison in the 200 free championship final. Last year's champ, Campbell Costley, would finish second after a time of 1:50.73. Alex Elizeus placed fifth in 1:52.33 and Kate Wright and Van Leuven went 7-8, respectively. All four notched season-best times.
The individual events were rounded out by Bednarek, Ellen Higdon and Marisa Pulaski who wound up 3-5-7 in the 100 breast. Bednarek hit the wall in 1:03.73 while Higdon and Pulaski recorded times of 1:05.03 and 1:05.58, respectively.
The final event of the night was the 800 free relay. The team of Costley, Elizeus, Wright and Johns took second in 7:29.58.
Denison will return to the Trumbull Aquatics Center on Saturday for the final day of competition at the 2016 NCAC Championship. Preliminaries will start at 10 a.m. in the 200 back, 100 free, 200 breast, 200 fly and the 400 free relay in addition to finals of the 1,650 freestyle and the 3-meter dive. Finals will begin at 6:30 p.m.
