Owls win two titles, set one national record

3/18/2026 9:25:00 PM

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Wednesday's opening day of the four-day NCAA Division III Women's Swimming and Diving Championship contained multiple highlights for the Kenyon College Owls, who won one individual event and one relay event in a national-record time.

The championship, being held at the IU Natatorium, could not have gotten off to a better start for Kenyon, as senior Molly Haag claimed the NCAA crown in the 500-yard freestyle with a winning time of 4:46.81. Her time was a personal record and just missed the Kenyon program record of 4:46.67. The NCAA title was the first for Haag, who entered the meet with 12 career top-10 NCAA finishes, including a pair of ninth-place showings in the 500 over the previous two championships.

In that same distance swim, Kenyon sophomore Nora Lee Brown registered a sixth-place time of 4:52.11. That was one spot better than her seventh-place finish in the same event last season. Brown's and Haag's swims gave Kenyon 33 team points and put them third on the overall team leaderboard.

The results of the next event, the 200-yard individual medley, put Kenyon in first place with a slim 4.5-point lead over New York University. In the consolation heat, junior Ashlyn Widmer had her best career finish at 14th place and she did it with a personal record time of 2:04.01. Then, in the finals heat, sophomore Kelsey Van Eldik tied for second place, clocking in at 2:01.25, another personal record, and collected her third career All-America award. Last season, Van Eldik tied for 23rd in the same event.

Next up, the lightning quick 50-yard freestyle saw Kenyon junior Kate Bogan turn in a time of 23.31 and place 13th in the consolation round after placing 34th and 30th the last two years. In the finals, senior Lisa Torrecillas-Jouault posted a seventh-place swim of 23.41.

At that point, Kenyon slid to second on the team leaderboard, trailing New York by 21.5 points. Fittingly, Kenyon and New York swam side-by-side in the evening's final event, the 400-yard medley relay.

The Owls' relay team of Gwen Eisenbeis, Van Eldik, Nora Kortuem, and Torrecillas-Jouault closed out the Wednesday session by blowing away the rest of the field. The quartet won the relay with a time of 3:37.94, which beat both the Kenyon and national record of 3:38.05 set back in the 2022 season.

New York finished third in the relay, but maintained its spot in first place in the team standings with 121 points. Kenyon holds down second place with 108.8 points and Emory University sits third with 92.5 points.

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