GAMBIER, Ohio – Kenyon College ran its 2015-16 record total to seven winners of NCAA Postgraduate Scholarships after Percy Gates, Katie Kaestner, Hannah Lobb, Haley Townsend and Mariah Williamson were recently named awardees for the winter sports season. That group of five joined Kenyon's fall sports winners, Sam Lagasse and Alex Oles.

The College reached its previous high mark of five winners during the 2000-01 academic year.

Since 1964, when the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship program was launched, Kenyon has a total of 75 winners, a mark that ranks second-best among all NCAA Division III institutions.

Spanning all its divisions, the NCAA awards up to 174 postgraduate scholarships annually. The one-time non-renewable scholarships of $7,500 are awarded three times a year corresponding to each sport season (fall, winter and spring). Each sports season there are 29 scholarships available for men and 29 scholarships available for women for use in an accredited graduate program.

Kenyon's five winter winners were all members of the swimming and diving program. Gates helped steer the Lords to conference and national runner-up finishes, while Kaestner, Lobb, Townsend and Williamson pushed the Ladies to a North Coast Athletic Conference title, as well as a national runner-up finish.

Gates, a physics major, had three top-10 swims at the 2016 NCAA Division III Championship. Two of those three were second-place showings in the 200-yard medley and 200-yard freestyle relays. He was a four-year national qualifier and earned a total of eight NCAA All-America awards. After graduation, he plans to take a year conducting medical research in hospitals and clinics. He'll then begin applying to medical schools and work toward becoming a physician.

Kaestner was an 18-time All-American. The breaststroke specialist had three top-10 finishes at the 2016 national meet. She was a previous national title winner, collecting crowns in the 200-yard and 400-yard medley relays at the 2013 championship. A political science major and biology minor, Kaestner will work as a medical scribe for ScribeAmerica. Following her time there, she plans to enroll in a physician's assistant master's program.

Lobb's immediate plans involve returning home to Auckland, New Zealand, where she aims to find a job associated with foreign policy or immigration. When she's ready for postgraduate work, she'd like to focus on international relations or human rights. In the pool, Lobb was a powerhouse for the 2016 Ladies. She won the national title in the 100-yard freestyle and turned in five other top-five finishes.

A long-distance trip is also in store for Townsend, who majored in international studies and minored in Arabic. At the end of the summer, she'll travel to Turkey for work as a Fulbright English teaching assistant. Her thoughts about graduate school currently lean toward energy and environmental studies. In addition to the postgraduate scholarship and Fulbright Fellowship, Townsend is a two-time Academic All-American, a 16-time NCAA All-American and a 2013 national champion in the 400-yard medley relay.

Williamson was a double major in economics and French. She'll soon be moving to Cincinnati to begin work in the Executive Development Program at Macy's corporate finance headquarters. She plans on using her NCAA scholarship to pursue a master's degree in business administration. A distance specialist, Williamson concluded her Kenyon swimming career with 15 NCAA All-America awards. At this year's championship she had a trio of top-10 finishes, including a fourth-place showing in the 400-yard individual medley.