Owls start season with victory at home

GAMBIER, Ohio -- The Kenyon College women's swimming and diving team cracked open Saturday the lid on the 2023-24 season by hosting the annual Kenyon Relays. The Owls won nine of eleven events, scored 136 team points and claimed first place in the five-team field.

Following Kenyon in the final standings were Carnegie Mellon University in second place with 94 points and Case Western Reserve University in third with 74 points. The College of Wooster was fourth with a score of 56 and Ohio Wesleyan University finished fifth with 32 points.

Kenyon's first event win Saturday came in the second race of the afternoon. Emma Kelley, Gwen Eisenbeis, Caleigh Wukitch and Christine Kessens combined to take the top spot in the 200-yard backstroke relay. They clocked in at 1:46.42, a little more than a second quicker than the second-place team from Carnegie Mellon.

That win ignited a string of eight consecutive victories for the Owls. In the next event, the 200-yard breaststroke relay, Kenyon's winning foursome included Kate Bogan, Sydney Buchman, Gabrielle Wei and Jennah Fadely. They finished the race in 2:00.73, winning by more than five seconds.

Next, it was Kenyon's 500-yard crescendo relay that clock in first. That team saw Eisenbeis and Wei pair with Sydney Geboy and Molly Haag, as they turned in a winning time of 4:37.33.

WIth one relay event win already to their credit, Buchman, Eisenbeis and Geboy teamed with Sofia Giordano to win the 200-yard butterfly relay in a time of 1:45.27.

Giordano then jumped right back in the pool for the next event, the 3x500-yard relay. She was followed by Haag and Julia McGovern. Together, that Kenyon trio posted a winning time of 15:49.16, nearly half-a-minute faster than any other team in the pool.

The multiple winners kept piling up for Kenyon as Buchman, Wei, Geboy and Kessens were the fastest team in the 400-yard individual medley relay. They stopped the clock at 4:00.76.

Geboy remained in the lineup for the next event, the 200-yard freestyle relay. She joined Bogan, Eisenbeis and Fadely to post a winning time of 1:36.67.

The final event on Saturday's slate was the mixed 200-yard medley relay. That exhibition race saw Wukitch and Wei team up with Kenyon men's team members, Noah Hargrove and Marko Krtinic. The foursome kept the Owls' streak going with one final win, taking the race in 1:39.69.

Prior to the swimming events, the diving events were held in the morning. Although the event was scored in pairs, Katarina Ilic notched another Kenyon win, finishing first on the one-meter board with a score of 237.70. On the three-meter board, Kenyon's best was Claire Fergusson. She took second place with a score of 224.05.

Next weekend, the Owls will be back in action, as they start their dual-meet schedule on Saturday, at home, against University of Cincinnati.

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Players Mentioned

Sydney Buchman: Junior

Jennah Fadely: Sophomore

Claire Fergusson: Junior

Sydney Geboy: Sophomore

Katarina Ilic: Junior

Gabrielle Wei: Sophomore

Caleigh Wukitch: Junior

Gwen Eisenbeis: First-Year

Molly Haag: First-Year

Emma Kelley: First-Year

Players Mentioned

Sydney Buchman
: Junior

Jennah Fadely
: Sophomore

Claire Fergusson
: Junior

Sydney Geboy
: Sophomore

Katarina Ilic
: Junior

Gabrielle Wei
: Sophomore

Caleigh Wukitch
: Junior

Gwen Eisenbeis
: First-Year

Molly Haag
: First-Year

Emma Kelley
: First-Year