Hart, Mirus have Ladies off to record-breaking start

WEDNESDAY RESULTS (PDF) I CHAMPIONSHIP SITE

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind -- Fueled by seniors Crile Hart and Emmie Mirus, the Kenyon College Ladies won two events Wednesday and jumped to the top of the team standings after the first-day of the four-day NCAA Division III Women's Swimming and Diving Championship being held at IU Natatorium.

Before Kenyon could get going, it was rival Denison University that took the early lead by grabbing three of the top-five spots in the meet-opening 500-yard freestyle relay. That helped the Big Red rack up 50 points in the event. Kenyon's top finisher was sophomore Sarah Hoffman, who earned three team points with a 14th-place finish in a time of 4:57.37.

From there, Hart and Mirus really picked up the pace for Kenyon. Hart kick-started things with her second career victory in the 200-yard individual medley. Her win came along with a new NCAA record time of 1:57.76, which topped her old mark of 1:58.04 set in February of 2020. In the same event, first-year Jennah Fadely clocked in at 2:03.86 to claim a 13th-place finish.

In the next race, Mirus continued her years-long improvement in the 50-yard freestyle. In her first year of NCAA competition, Mirus placed seventh in the event. The following year, she placed fourth. Wednesday, she whipped up a personal-best time of 22.67 in the preliminaries and then took the runner-up spot in the finals with a 22.77. She finished just ahead of teammate and junior Alexandra White, who nailed down third place with a time of 22.92, also a personal best.

The Kenyon surge over those two events pulled the Ladies into second place in the team standings. With one event left on the Wednesday-night slate, the Ladies had 60 team points, second only to Denison's total of 68.

In that final event, the 200-yard medley relay, it was Hart and Mirus again leading the way for the Kenyon women. Those two joined Fadely and junior Olivia Smith to take the relay title in an NCAA record time of 1:39.59, erasing the old mark of 1:40.11 set by Denison's 2019 relay team.

The two event titles for Hart gave her 10 throughout her career and also improved her All-America award count to 16. Mirus doubled her career total to two national titles, while the first-place NCAA trophy was a first for both Smith and Fadely.

Kenyon will now enter day two of the Championship in first place with 100 team points. Denison lurks in second with 94 team points and Emory University, the 10-time defending champions, hold down third place with 91 points.

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Players Mentioned

Sarah Hoffman: Sophomore

Olivia Smith: Junior

Alexandra White: Junior

Crile Hart: Senior

Emmie Mirus: Senior

Jennah Fadely: First-Year

Players Mentioned

Sarah Hoffman
: Sophomore

Olivia Smith
: Junior

Alexandra White
: Junior

Crile Hart
: Senior

Emmie Mirus
: Senior

Jennah Fadely
: First-Year