Indianapolis, Ind. (March 20, 2026)- For the second consecutive year, the Denison women's swimming and diving team took home some hardware, after finishing in fourth place at the 2026 NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships. The Big Red finished the weekend with 23 All-American finishes, with 14 of them being first-team. Denison finished the four-day championships with 304 points. This year's national championship team was NYU, which finished the weekend with a dominant 517 points. Coming in second was Emory, who tallied 433.50 points, followed by Kenyon with 380.
What happened in Prelims
In a fast 200 Breast, three swimmers finished in the top three of their heats. The speed of the final two heats, however, moved Riley Tofflemire just out of B-Finals contention, while Drue Thielking swam the second fastest time, and Gwen Bakker earned the seventh fastest time in the A-Finals of the 200 Breast.
Riley O'Hara swam the 1650 Free during the morning timed finals, where Reilly O'Hara finished seventh in her heat with a time of 17:16.69.
Additional Final Qualifiers
200 Back- B Finals-Avery Anderson: (2:00.65 | 11th)
200 Back- B Finals- Caroline Ramirez (2:01.48 | 15th)
400 Free Relay- B Finals- (Emily Harris, Ollie Morse, Phoebe Ferguson, Hailey Kaminski)
Over in the diving well, senior Diver Lu-Si Minnich totaled 399.90 in the 3-meter, which came up short of the B-finals. Minnich wrapped up her decorated career as a Denison diver, a two-time National Team member, and this year was named the North Coast Athletic Conference Diver of the year, after earning the title in the one and three-meter dive.
Day Four Finals
Denison continued to find success in the Freestyle events; this time, Quinn Brown took fourth place in the 1650 Free with a time of 16:54.30. In the B-Final of the 200 Back, first-year Avery Anderson and sophomore Caroline Ramirez would go 12th (2:00.26) and 13th (2:00.57). Looking to put some cushion between themselves and Williams, Denison earned two A-Final spots in the 200 Breast, where senior Drue Thielking finished third with a time of 2:12.84, and junior Gwen Bakker came in 8th with 2:18.69. Denison wrapped championship week with an 11th-place finish in the 400 Free Relay, made up of Ollie Morse, Emily Harris, Phoebe Ferguson, and Hailey Kaminski.
The NCAA National senior class of Quinn Brown, Phoebe Ferguson, Emily Harris, Lu-Si Minnich, and Drue Thielking wraps their career as one-time NCAC Champions, three-time NCAC runner-ups, and for many of them, NCAA National Champions.
All American List:
First Team
- Quinn Brown- 500 Free, 1650 Free
- Drue Thielking- 100 Breast, 200 Breast
- Gwen Bakker- 100 Breast
- Emily Harris- 200 Fly, 400 IM, 500 Free
- Jassy Park- 100 Back
- Riley Tofflemire- 100 Breast
- Women's 200 Medley (Jassy Parks, Riley Tofflemire, Phoebe Ferguson, Hailey Kaminski)
- Women's 800 Medley (Emily Harris, Ollie Morse, Reilly O'Hara, Quinn Brown)
- Women's 200 Free Relay (Ollie Morse, Hailey Kaminski, Caroline Ramirez, Emily Harris)
- Women's 400 Medley Relay (Jassy Park, Riley Tofflemire, Phoebe Ferguson, Emily Harris)
Second Team
Previous NCAA Championships
2000-01: 1st NCAA Championship | Point Total- 588
2022-23: 2nd NCAA Championship | Point Total 464.5
