GRANVILLE, Ohio (October 30, 2021) – Despite garnering six first-place finishes and 20 finishes in the top-three, the No. 3 nationally-ranked Denison University women's swimming team suffered a close 137.5-123.5 loss to NCAA Division I Xavier University during the Big Red's first home meet of the 2021-22 season on Saturday afternoon at the Trumbull Aquatics Center.
Emma Pritchett led Denison with a pair of wins in the 100 butterfly and in the 200 butterfly.
The meet was kicked off by the 200 medley relay in which
Lauren Richner,
Zoe Barclay,
Emma Berdelman and
Amber Croonquist finished third with a time of 1:50.60.
In the first individual event of the meet, the 1000 freestyle, Denison's
Alix O'Brien took first place with a time of 10:26.76, followed by
Tara Witkowski in second place with a time of 10:47.71.
Next was the 200 freestyle, which saw
Taryn Wisner finish in first place with a time of 1:54.97, followed by
Tara Culibrk in second place with at time of 1:55.22, pulling Denison into first place (31-23) as a team for the first time on the day.
In the 100 backstroke,
Annalise Cheshire (1:00.26),
Claire Moody (1:00.88) and
Sophie Kannee (1:02.59) finished in third, fourth and fifth place, respectively.
In the 100 breaststroke,
Devin Javens finished in first place with a time of 1:07.64, and was followed by
Christina Crane in second place with a time of 1:08.41.
In the 200 butterfly, Pritchett took first place with a time of 2:08.10 while
Nikki Barnas was second with a time of 2:09.65.
Grace Kadlecik finished second in the 50 freestyle with at time of 24.65 seconds, and in the 100 freestyle, Culibrk (52.98 seconds) was second while
Avery Vogen (53.74 seconds) was third.
After the 200 backstroke, Xavier took back the lead (84.5-83.5) as Moody (2:08.92) finished third and Kacmarek (2:09.95) was fourth.
However, the Big Red bounced right back to retake the lead (94.5-92.5) after
Esme Wright finished first in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:27.13.
In the 500 freestyle, Wisner (5:03.14) finished second, O'Brien (5:03.17) was third, and
Tara Witkowski (5:16.17) was fourth.
Pritchett won the 100 butterfly with a time of 57.16 seconds, however, Xavier took back the lead for good (124.5-119.5) following the 200 IM in which Javens (2:13.35) was third and
Rebecca Martin (2:13.46) was fourth.
The home opener for Denison was capped off by the 200 free relay, which saw Culibrk, Kadlecik, Vogen and Wright take second place with a time of 1:36.69.
There were no diving events held during this dual meet.
Denison returns to action next weekend on Saturday, November 6, when they host No. 1 nationally-ranked Kenyon College at 10 a.m. The meet will be streamed live by the Denison Sports Network beginning at 9:45 a.m.
Final Results
