RESULTS  I  CHAMPIONSHIP SITE

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Punctuated with national-title swim from freshman Crile Hart, the Kenyon College Ladies swimming and diving team made a bold statement Wednesday, the opening day of the four-day 2018 NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championship at Indiana University Natatorium.

The Ladies earned 118 points and occupied second place, just 28 points behind first-place and eight-time defending national champion Emory University. Williams College if right on Kenyon's tail with 114 points, while Johns Hopkins University and Denison University round out the top five with 86 and 56 points, respectively.

Kenyon didn't waste any time in claiming the early lead with success in the meet-opening 500-yard freestyle. The Ladies placed two swimmers in the top-eight and five in the top-16. That group, led by junior Hannah Orbach-Mandel, racked up a total of 47 team points. Orbach-Mandel was the event runner-up with a personal-best time of 4:48.67. Sophomore teammate Kendall Vanderhoof added a personal-best 4:52.54 for fourth place. Prior to that, in the consolation heat, junior Delaney Ambrosen finished ninth (4:54.60), sophomore Gail Anderson was 13th (4:57.61) and sophomore Scout Wilkins was 15th (5:03.14).



Hart then stepped up and stole the show for Kenyon. Earlier in the day, during preliminary heats, she set the NCAA record in the 200-yard individual medley. Her time of 1:58.29 erased the previous NCAA record of 1:58.81 set in 2013 by Caroline Wilson of Williams. When the evening finals rolled around, Hart went on to capture her first career individual title with a winning time of 1:58.86. Senior Julia Wilson added an eighth-place finish in the same event and the Ladies ran their first-place total to 78 points.

Emory might have been a little late to the party, but the Eagles made their presence known in the next event, which was the 50-yard freestyle. Emory swimmers claimed three of the top-five spots in the event and jumped to the top of the team standings with 106 points, 16 ahead of Kenyon, whose only top-16 finisher in the all-out sprint was freshman Emmerson Mirus. She clocked in at 23.26 and placed seventh.

The only other event on the docket for Wednesday night was the 200-yard medley relay. Emory won that, too, and Kenyon's squad had to settle for fifth place as Hart, Wilson, Mirus and Orbach-Mandel combined to post a time of 1:41.98.

The Ladies will look to make up ground tomorrow, during the second session of the national meet. Preliminary heats will again begin at 10 a.m. and final heats start at 6 p.m.