THURSDAY'S RESULTS  I  CHAMPIONSHIP SITE  I  PHOTOS

SHENANDOAH, Texas – The Kenyon College Ladies registered five, top-eight finishes Thursday night and remained in third place at the halfway point of the four-day 2017 NCAA Division III Women's Swimming & Diving Championship at Conroe ISD Natatorium.

The updated standings still have the Emory University Eagles in front with 330 points. Williams College is second with 225 points and the Ladies hold down third with a score of 208. Rounding out the top five teams are Denison University in fourth place with 175 points and Massachusetts Institute of Technology in fifth with 87 points.

Kenyon began the evening with a fourth-place time of 1:33.80 in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Freshman Zoe Toscos led things off for the Ladies and was followed by senior Laura Duncan, sophomore Hannah Orbach-Mandel and sophomore Abby Wilson. Teams from Williams and Denison finished ahead of the Ladies, while the same Emory foursome from last season took the title again and set an NCAA record with a time of 1:30.52.

The Eagles then placed two swimmers in the top-four of the 400-yard individual medley to move their overall team total to 209 points, 54 more than Williams and 73 more than Kenyon. Despite the deficit, the Ladies had great success in the event with three swimmers tallying points. Sophomore Marysol Arce led the trio with a sixth-place finish in a time of 4:24.18. In the consolation final, senior Ellie Crawford placed 13th in 4:27.88, while junior Julie Dierker took 16th in 4:31.60. Megan Pierce of Williams won the event for the third time in the last four seasons. She clocked in at 4:15.71.

The Ladies had no finalists in the next event, the 100-yard butterfly, and that gave Emory and Williams the opportunity to further distance themselves. Williams had two scoring swimmers, including race-winner Emma Waddell who hit the wall in 53.48. Emory also had two scoring swimmers, running its lead over the Ladies to 102 points.

Kenyon got back on the board in the 200-yard freestyle, but still lost ground to Emory. The Ladies saw Orbach-Mandel and Wilson place third and fourth with respective times of 1:48.83 and 1:48.89, but Emory swimmers took over the other three top-five spots, including the top spot, which was claimed by Cindy Cheng and her time of 1:46.82. Kenyon also received a ninth-place consolation victory from sophomore Delaney Ambrosen, who clocked in at 1:49.88.

In terms of those same top-three teams, Thursday's final event changed nothing. Emory University won the session-closing 400-yard medley relay in an NCAA record time of 3:39.57. Williams was second and Kenyon placed third with a time of 3:43.47. Kenyon's team was comprised of freshman Summer Otazu, junior Julia Wilson, junior Kanchi Desai and Orbach-Mandel.

The championship meet will resume Friday with preliminaries at 10 a.m. CST and finals at 6 p.m. CST.