CLEVELAND, Ohio (January 22, 2022) – Thanks to 12 first-place finishes, the No. 3 Denison University women's swimming & diving team took down NCAA Division I Cleveland State University 217-78 and NCAA Division II Gannon University 243-56 in its first action of 2022.

Denison won both relays on the day and got off to a great start by earning a win in each of the first four events of the meet.

In the first event, the combination of Lauren Richner, Olivia Lantry, Emma Pritchett and Tara Culibrk placed first in the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:48.15; and then in the first individual event, Alix O'Brien won the 1000 freestyle with a time of 10:32.15 and was followed by Tara Witkowski in second place at 10:40.42.

In the third event, Culibrk won the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:55.19 and was followed by Taryn Wisner in second place at 1:56.19; and then in the fourth event, Annalise Cheshire won the 100 backstroke with a time of 59.47 seconds.

In the 100 breaststroke, Esme Wright (1:08.10) was second and Devin Javens (1:08.29) was third.

Denison got back to its winning ways as Pritchett won the 200 butterfly with a time of 2:09.61 and was followed by Emma Berdelman in second place at 2:10.32.

In the 50 freestyle, Denison finished in each of the second, third and fourth spots as Natalie English (25.29 seconds) was second, Avery Vogen (25.34 seconds) was third and Lauren Young (25.41 seconds) was fourth. In the 100 freestyle, Culibrk was second with a time of 54.08 seconds.

In the 200 backstroke, Denison took each of the top three spots as Claire Moody (2:06.53) was first, Grace Kacmarek (2:09.07) was second and Ali Burns (2:12.59) was third.

In the 200 breaststroke, Denison again put three swimmers in a row in the top four as Wright (2:23.55) was second, Savannah Sargent (2:27.02) was third and Javens (2:28.78) was fourth.

O'Brien earned her second individual event win of the day by taking first in the 500 freestyle with a time of 5:06.36 while Wisner was second at 5:10.00; and then Pritchett got her second individual and third overall event win in the 100 butterfly with a time of 56.69 seconds while Vogen was second at 1:00.42.

Wright won the final individual swim of the meet, the 200 IM, with a time of 2:09.92.

Finally, in the second relay of the meet, Richner, Amber Croonquist, Cheshire and Young combined to win the 200 freestyle relay with a time of 1:38.80 while Culibrk, English, Vogen and Annie Pfeufer were second at 1:39.23.

On the diving boards, Kerstyn Johnson (216.25) and Taylor Trapp (204.90) finished in first and second place in the 1-meter diving competition, and then Johnson (230.30) and Maggie Seftenberg (223.80) were first and second in the 3-meter diving competition.

Denison returns to action on Saturday, January 29, when they send one team to follow North Coast Athletic Conference foe Ohio Wesleyan University and send another to NCAA Division I Youngstown State University in what will be the Big Red's final action before hosting the NCAC Championship February 9-12.

Final Results