GRANVILLE, Ohio -- For the second straight season and the 29th time in the 40-year history of the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC), the Kenyon College women's swimming and diving team claimed the NCAC Championship. After needing a comeback effort to claim the crown last season, this year's Owls squad led after each day of the four-day meet, trailing for just a handful of events over their championship defense.
Kenyon capped its championship run with a stellar final night, winning four of the evening's seven event championships and claiming two individual awards. Jennah Fadely continued to cement her status as one of the best to ever do it, winning a third consecutive NCAC Women's Swimmer of the Year Award, joining Crile Hart as the only Kenyon women to earn the honor three times.
Additionally, first-year diver Jael Cohn was chosen as the NCAC Women's Newcomer of the Year after adding to Kenyon's strong diving performances throughout the championship meet. Cohn becomes the second straight and sixth overall Kenyon woman to win the Newcomer of the Year award. Last year, Bengisu Caymaz was tabbed as the top newcomer.
The Owls could not have asked for a better start to the final session, winning individual championships in each of the first two events. Caymaz claimed the evening's first crown, winning the 1,650-yard freestyle for a second straight season. The sophomore touched first at 16:36.97, improving her team-leading, NCAA 'B' cut mark. The event was a big one for Kenyon, as Owls swimmers accounted for four of the top six finishes. Junior Molly Haag shattered her season-best swim by about 17 seconds, clocking in at 16:50.16 to improve her 'B' cut standing. Additionally, first-year Nora Lee Brown (16:58.40) placed fourth, and sophomore Sofia Giordano (17:44.98) took sixth.
Fadely followed up with a win in the 100-yard individual medley, completing her career sweep of the event at the NCAC finale. Her fourth career 100 IM title came with a time of 56.09, which set a pool record at Denison University's Trumbull Aquatics Center and is a season-best for her and the Owls. The victory marked Fadely's third individual championship of this year's meet, pushing her career individual title tally to 10 and putting her in elite company among Kenyon's all-time greats. Fadely becomes just the sixth Kenyon woman to crack double-digit individual event championships.
Kate Bogan (57.81) and Tuva Siegel (58.29) also added to Kenyon's scoring in the 100 IM, placing third and fourth, respectively. After the two event championships, the Owls' lead over the Big Red ballooned to 169 at 1,649-1,480.
Denison clawed back in the 100-yard freestyle with the top two times, but senior Sydney Geboy and junior Lisa Torrecillas-Jouault were not far behind in third and fourth, respectively. Geboy earned a spot on the podium with a time of 51.23, while Torrecillas-Jouault touched at 51.43.
A return to the top was in short order for the Owls as another senior set the standard in the 200-yard breaststroke. Gabrielle Wei led the way in the event, clocking in at 2:12.41. The victory saw Wei win her fourth career NCAC Championship in the event, and her time broke her own conference record in the event, 2:14.09, which she set in the morning's preliminary heat.
First-year Kelsey Van Eldik also ascended to the 200 breaststroke podium, placing third with a personal-best time of 2:16.73, improving her 'B' Cut mark. Giordano earned another Kenyon bronze an event later in the 200-yard butterfly, stopping the clock at 2:04.20. The finish helped the Owls build an insurmountable lead heading into the meet's final event.
Locking up the title did not lead the Owls to let off the gas, however. Kenyon put the cherry on top of their NCAC Championship by taking the conference title in the 400-yard freestyle relay. The winning quartet of Haag, Fadely, Torrecillas-Jouault, and Geboy trailed at the midway point, but Torrecillas-Jouault got the Owls back on track before Geboy gave Kenyon the edge as the anchor, racing ahead of Denison to win by 0.27 seconds. The team's 3:21.39 time is Kenyon's best in the event this season by over two seconds.
The Owls finished the meet with 2,040 points. Denison finished second with 1,929 points, while DePauw University rounded out the top three teams with 1,281. The College of Wooster (1,159), Oberlin College (923.5), Wittenberg University (720.5), Ohio Wesleyan University (577), and Hiram College (260) rounded out the nine-team standings.
