Eisenbeis rings up record, Owls expand lead

2/13/2026 9:25:00 PM

GRANVILLE, Ohio -- Entering Friday's finals session with a 117 point lead, the name of the game for the Kenyon College Owls was depth. The team won three more event titles, one in record fashion, and expanded its margin over Denison University to 147 points on the third day of the four-day 2026 North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Women's Swimming and Diving Championship.

Swimmers from Denison, the host of the championship meet, won the first two events of the day, however, Kenyon's depth prevailed as the Owls chalked up more points than the Big Red in each of those events. In the 100-yard butterfly, the Owls' long list of finals heat finishers started with Sofia Giordano in third place (55.41), Afsana Rawlins in fourth (56.13), Amelia Stevenson in fifth (56.45), Gwen Eisenbeis in sixth place (56.68), and Nora Kortuem in seventh (56.81).

One event later, it was Ashlyn Widmer turning in a runner-up time of 4:23.38 in the 400-yard individual medley and then C.J. Woare touched in 4:31.10 for a third-place showing.

By the time those first two events were completed, the Kenyon lead grew to 176 points over the Big Red.

Senior Molly Haag then chalked up the Owls' first win of the night, taking the 200-yard freestyle in a time of 1:49.68. Right behind her was teammate and sophomore Nora Lee Brown, who clocked in with a personal record time of 1:50.69. Both those Kenyon swimmers finished ahead of Denison's Quinn Brown, the defending champion in the event.

On the heels of that win, sophomore Kelsey Van Eldik grabbed another gold medal for Kenyon in the 100-yard breaststroke. She whipped up a winning time of 1:01.32, holding off four Denison contenders. Van Eldik's teammates, Julia Mascarenhas and Kate Bogan, added sixth- and seventh-place finishes in respective times of 1:04.04 and 1:04.95.

Next up, Eisenbeis, a senior, won the 100-yard backstroke for the Owls, clocking in at 54.36 and holding off three Big Red swimmers. Her time was a personal record and broke her own NCAC record time of 54.59, set yesterday in the opening leg of the 400-yard medley relay. Adding additional points to the Kenyon total in that same backstroke event were Kate Dunagan, who took sixth in 56.74, and Lisa Torrecillas-Jouault, who claimed seventh in 56.94.

The Friday session came to a close with a runner-up finish for Kenyon's 200-yard freestyle relay team of Mascarenhas, Eisenbeis, Torrecillas-Jouault, and Bogan. That quartet clocked in at 1:32.50, coming up just short of the winning time of 1:32.43 posted by the Denison team.

As the NCAC field heads toward Saturday, the final day of the championship meet at Trumbull Aquatics Center, Kenyon sits atop the team leaderboard with 1,300 points. Denison holds down second with 1,153, and DePauw University sits in third place with 890.5 points.

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