The 200 Medley Relay team of Olivia Zaleski, Kristen Hohl, Ksenia Golovkina and Kate Rich defended their national title on Wednesday night. DU is tied for second after day one.

The Denison women's swimmers got off to an excellent start at the 2009 NCAA Swimming & Diving Championship and trail first-place Kenyon by just 31 points entering the second of four days at the championship.

The Big Red capped off their first night of competition by defending their national title in the 200 medley relay.  The team of Olivia Zaleski, Ksenia Golovkina, Kate Rich and Kristen Hohl posted a winning time of 1:41.20 which broke the meet record the same foursome set at last year's championship in Oxford, Ohio.  Zaleski's 25.91 lead-off split in the backstroke got Denison off to an outstanding start and Hohl held off Kenyon's Liz Carlton in the freestyle to lock up their first national championship of the meet.

The win moved Denison into a second-place tie with Emory.  The two teams have 111 points and trail Kenyon who posted 142 points due largely to their dominance in the 200 IM.  Fourth place currently belongs to Williams College with 89.5 points.

In the first event of the national championship, Denison got two outstanding swims by a pair of first-time qualifiers. After capturing the North Coast Athletic Conference championship in the 500 free just over a month ago, Hilary Callen bested that conference record time by posting 4:53.30 which landed her in third place.  Her teammate, junior Jenny Cunningham, placed eighth with a time of 4:58.80.  The winner of the 500 free was Emory's Liz Horvat who shattered the meet record by three seconds after touching in 4:53.65.

In the 50 freestyle a battle for the championship final took place in morning preliminaries and Zaleski's time of 23.51 kept her one spot out of qualifying for the championship heat.  That didn't stop her from posting a tremendous time of 23.05 in the consolation final which landed her ninth.  Golovkina placed 11th in the event but Denison's top performer was Hohl who took home fourth place with her time of 23.12.  That marked Hohl's third, All-America swim in the 50 free and her second consecutive fourth-place finish.

The 200 IM saw the Kenyon Ladies build their lead after placing seven swimmers in the top-14.  Denison's Rich made her presence known in the final thanks to her time school-record time of 2:03.78 which placed her fifth.  Rich, who entered the final with the fastest preliminary time at 2:03.63, broke Lauren Clark's school record that had stood for five years.

DU will be back in the pool on Thursday for preliminaries that begin at 10 a.m.  Thursday will feature finals in the 200 free relay, the 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free and the 400 medley relay.

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