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2013 NCAA WOMEN'S SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIP -- EVENT NOTES
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Notes will be updated during the finals sessions each night.
WEDNESDAY
500 Freestyle -- For the second consecutive season and the third time in the last four seasons, Caroline Wison from Williams College took the title. Only Kendra Stern's 2011 win prevented Wilson from pulling off the career sweep. Wilson now owns nine career individual event titles. For Kenyon, freshman Mariah Williams turned in a fourth-place finish with a new Kenyon record time of 4:53.36 and senior Kiersten Bell captured a career-best fifth-place finish in 4:53.60. Bell set the Kenyon record earlier in the day with a prelim swim of 4:53.76. Syd Linblom added an 11th place showing (4:57.39), putting the Ladies in third place with 35 points in the team standings.
200 Individual Medley -- Two events in the books and two wins for Caroline Wilson of Williams College. Setting the NCAA record (1:58.81) in the event during morning prelims, Wilson returned to the pool in the evening for the win (1:59.43) and her tenth career title, just one shy of the NCAA women's record. The Ladies had no swimmers in this event's final heats and dropped to fourth place overall.
50 Freestyle -- Freshman Kirsten Nitz of Wheaton held off defending champion Kellie Pennington of Springfield. Nitz clocked in with a time of 22.87, Pennington clocked in at 23.07. Kenyon had two swimmers in the consolation final. Freshman Haley Townsend placed 11th with a time of 23.57 in her first-ever NCAA race. Junior Hillary Yarosh placed 14th with a time of 23.68 and picked up her fifth career All-America award. Both were seeded outside of the top-20 entering competition.
Three-Meter Diving -- Freshman Maria Zarka saved her best for last. Scoring a Kenyon record 514.25 points, Zarka took the three-meter title and became the first Kenyon diver to claim NCAA gold since Becky White won the one-meter title at the 2000 NCAA Championship. Zarka's point total shattered the old Kenyon record of 452.05 points posted by Ann Kelley in the 1991-92 season. and was just three points shy of the NCAA record of 517.10.
200 Medley Relay -- Powered by a 23.75 butterfly split from senior Hannah Saiz, the Ladies won their first NCAA realy title since the 2008 championship. Saiz, teamed with junior Rachel Flinn, freshman Katie Kaestner, and junior Hillary Yarosh to register a winning time of 1:41.60. It was the first NCAA event title for all four members of the Kenyon team. The win garnered 40 team points for the Ladies and put them in second place (104), behind defending champion Emory University (151.5), in the overall standings.
THURSDAY
200 Freestyle Relay -- The Kenyon Ladies chalked up a runner-up finish in the event, but Emory further distanced itself from the pack by winning and out-pointing Kenyon, 40-34. Kenyon's team of Haley Townsend, Kate Haller, Jourdan Cline, and Hillary Yarosh clocked in with a time of 1:33.02, which set a new Kenyon standard and erased the old Ladies' mark of 1:33.08 set by the 2007 quartet of Tina Ertel, Elizabeth Carlton, Alyssa Toran, and Jessica Wise. Between swimming and diving events, this was the Ladies' third College record of the meet.
400 Individual Medley -- Caroline Wilson of Williams College won her third individual event of the 2013 Championship and the 11th of her career. That total ties the previous NCAA record for career individual-event wins set by Kenyon's Patty Aby and Carla Ainsworth, as well as Logan Todhunter, also of Williams College. For Kenyon, the only swimmer competing in the finals was freshman Mariah Williamson, who placed eighth with a time of 4:27.40. In the consolation final, junior Syd Lindblom claimed 16th place with a time of 4:31.41.Coming into the event, Williamson was seeded 16th and Lindblom was seeded 20th.
100 Butterfly -- Seeded first and second coming into the event, Kirsten Nitz of Wheaton and Hannah Saiz of Kenyon finished in that exact order. Nitz edged Saiz for the title by touching in 53.08. Saiz, now a 16-time All-American, touched in 53.20. That time clipped her old Kenyon record of 54.36. With the finish Saiz, a senior, has 11 career top-five finishes in national competition. Kenyon also witnessed sophomore Hannah Cooper turn in her best swim at nationals. She finished in 55.07 and claimed fifth place and her first All-America award. Last season, Cooper placed 18th in this event.
200 Freestyle -- For the second straight season, Sarah Thompson of Williams College took the title. Thompson's winning time was 1:48.50. Kenyon senior Hannah Saiz, who just came off a runner-up finish in the 100 butterfly, ended up claming fifth place for the Ladies by clocking in at 1:49.63, which would have been a Kenyon record had not Hillary Yarosh set the mark at 1:49.29 during the morning preliminaries. Yarosh was not able to keep that pace in the finals and finished in sixth place with a 1:49.66. The old Kenyon record in this event was set by Carla Ainsworth back in the 1994-95 season. Kenyon also received an 11th-place finish from freshman Haley Townsend (1:50.64), who helped the Ladies narrow the gap in the standings. Emory is still out in front with 280.5 points. Kenyon is second with 214 points.
400 Medley Relay -- The Ladies closed out the night with a record-setting performance and tightened the gap on first-place Emory to 58.5 points. Kenyon's foursome of Celia Oberholzer, Katie Kaestner, Hannah Saiz, and Haley Townsend turned in a winning and NCAA record time of 3:40.13, destroying the old national mark by over two seconds. The title was the second career title for Saiz and Kaestner. It was a first for Oberholzer and Townsend.
FRIDAY
200 Butterfly -- Finally, senior Hannah Saiz got her first NCAA individual event title. Saiz blew away the field by over six seconds in the morning preliminaries (1:55.98) and then took the title in the finals by over four seconds (1:57.42). Before winning the title in this event, Saiz had a third-place showing and two runner-up swims on her three previous efforts at the national meet. Saiz's prelim time was a new Kenyon record, one that erased the old record of 1:57.32 set by Saiz earlier this year. Saiz now has three career NCAA titles and 19 career All-America awards. Sophomore Meaghan McLaughlin added a 16th-place swim in this event for the Ladies (2:06.60).
100 Backstroke -- Celia Oberholzer made it two-for-two on the night for Kenyon. Rigth after Saiz took the crown in the 200 butterfly, Oberholzer took the title in this event with a time of 53.46 and became the first Kenyon woman to win the event since Beth Galloway in 2004. Oberholzer's time was not only a Kenyon record, but it broke the old NCAA record of 53.85 set by Amherst's Brittany Sasser at the 2008 meet. Kenyon also got a seventh-place finish from Rachel Flinn (56.87) and a tenth-place finish from Kate Haller (55.51).
100 Breastsroke -- Sophomore Amy Spaay from Wisconsin-Whitewater took the title in this event by turning in a meet-record time of 1:00.85. Her win ended a streak of three-straight event titles for the Ladies, who took last night's 400-yard medley relay and then claimed today's 200 butterfly and 100 backstroke. In the 100 breaststroke, freshman Katie Kaestner was the lone Lady swimming. She finished in 1:03.90 to place seventh and garnered 12 more points for the Kenyon women.
One-Meter Diving -- Kenyon freshman Maria Zarka, two days removed from winning the NCAA title in the three-meter competition, took third place Friday night in the one-meter test. Zarka logged a score of 455.25 and claimed 16 team points for the Ladies.
800 Freestyle Relay -- No title here for the Ladies, but a runner-up finish kept them ahead of Emory's squad, which placed third. Kenyon clocked in at 7:20.84 for a new College record and out-touched Emory by 0.01. The Ladies' foursome included Haley Townsend, Hillary Yarosh, Mariah Williamson, and Kiersten Bell. The Kenyon record was the ninth to fall during the first three days of NCAA racing. Johns Hopkins ended up winning the event title with a time of 7:19.14.
SATURDAY
1650 Freestyle -- Kenyon got second- and third-place performances from freshman Mariah Williamson and junior Syd Lindblom. Williamson took the runner-up spot with yet another Kenyon record time of 16:48.70, which improved the old mark of 16:49.21, which she set earlier this season. Lindblom, who placed 13th in this event one season ago, clocked in Saturday night with a time of 16:50.76. Sophomore Sarah Thompson of Williams College, who placed third last year, won the 2013 title with a time of 16:31.60.
100 Freestyle -- Emory improved its overall team lead with a trio of top-eight finishes. It was Chandra Lukes from Redlands, however, that claimed the event title with a winning time of 50.22. Kenyon had no participants in the final, but freshman Haley Townsend and junior Hillary Yarosh went one-two in the consolation final. Townsend turned in a 50.88, while Yarosh fnished in 50.97.
200 Backstroke -- Kenyon's Celia Oberholzer was out-touched by Wheaton's Kristen Nitz, who is now a three-time title-winner at this year's meet. Oberholzer's time of 1:57.89, a Kenyon record, was only bettered by Nitz's 1:57.30. The old Kenyon mark was 2:00.15 set by Carolyn Barer at the 2009 NCAA Championship meet. Sophomore Hannah Cooper added a 10th-place finish for the Ladies by turning in a time of 2:01.10.
200 Breaststroke -- The Ladies did not have any participants in either one of Saturday night's heats. Emory swimmers finished sixth through ninth and the Eagles' overall team lead swelled to 128 points. The event winner, Amy Spaay of Wisconsin Whitewater, clocked in at 2:14.70 to complete the breaststroke sweep.
400 Freestyle Relay -- Appropriately enough, Kenyon finished the 2013 NCAA meet with another College record -- their 12th of the meet. Haley Townsend, Hillary Yarosh, Katie Kaestner, and Jourdan Cline teamed up to post a 3:23.66 for third place. They clipped the old Kenyon record of 3:24.95, which stood since the 1998 season. Emory, now a four-time NCAA Champion, won this relay in an NCAA record time of 3:21.28.
