GREENSBORO, N.C. (March 17, 2023) – The Denison University women's swimming & diving team brought home a national championship in the 800 freestyle relay to wrap up the third night of the 2023 NCAA Division III Swimming & Diving Championship. Throughout 15 of 20 events, the Big Red remain in first place and lead second-place Emory University by 58.5 points (350.5-292) while third-place Kenyon College (280) is 70.5 points behind.

The 800 freestyle was the final event of the night, and after a great opening leg swam by Taryn Wisner helped the Big Red get off to a good start, Esme Wright widened the lead to a comfortable margin before Annie Pfeufer and Tara Culibrk finished it off to win the national championship by over six seconds.

In the end, the Big Red finished with a time of 7:16.35 while Tufts finished second at 7:22.85. It was the fourth national championship in the 800 freestyle relay in program history and was Denison's first in the event since 2011.

In the first event on Friday, Emma Pritchett was just one spot away from qualifying for the B Final in the 200 butterfly as she finished in 17th with a time of 2:05.27 in the prelims.

Then in the prelims of the 100 backstroke, Claire Moody finished 20th with a time of 56.49 seconds while Grace Kadlecik was 32nd at 57.91 seconds.

That cut Denison's lead in the team standings down from 85.5 points entering the day to 42.5 points over Kenyon two events into day three.

In the 100 breaststroke prelims, the Big Red notched their first two finals qualifiers of the day as Christina Crane qualified for the A Final with a sixth-place time of 1:02.23 while Drue Thielking made the B Final with a ninth-place finish of 1:02.79.

In the finals of the 100 breaststroke, Crane finished in eighth place with a time of 1:02.62, but it was Kenyon's Jennah Fadley who ran away with the win at 59.94 seconds.

In the B Final, however, Thielking (1:03.02) just out-touched Gabriella Wei (1:03.06) from Kenyon to win the B Final, take ninth place overall and earn a few extra points for the Big Red.

That made it a 35.5-point lead (301.5-266) for Denison over Kenyon at the time.

After finishing in 10th place in the prelims in the 3-meter dive on Wednesday, Kerstyn Johnson did the same with a score of 394.20 points in the prelims of the 1-meter dive on Friday. In addition, just like she did in the 3-meter dive, Johnson moved up to finish first in the B Final (ninth overall) after accumulating a score of 404.90 points. Johnson's best score both in the prelims (41.80; 9th dive) and in the finals (40.70; 4th dive) came via an inward 1 1/2 somersault tuck (403C).

Denison will close out the 2023 NCAA Division III Championship on Saturday with finals in the 1,650 freestyle, 100 freestyle, 200 backstroke, 200 breaststroke and the 400 freestyle relay. Preliminaries will start at 10 a.m. followed by finals at 6 p.m.
 
National Championships:
Taryn Wisner, Esme Wright, Annie Pfeufer, Tara Culibrk – 800 freestyle relay – 7:16.35
 
First Team All-Americans (Top-8):
Christina Crane – 8th place in the 100 breaststroke – 1:02.62
 
Second-Team All-Americans (Top-16):
Drue Thielking – 9th place in the 100 breaststroke – 1:03.02
Kerstyn Johnson – 9th place on the 1-meter diving board – 404.90
 
Day Three Results