Olivia Zaleski set new meet records in the 100 fly, 100 back and 200 medley relay, helping Denison widen the gap between themselves and second-place Kenyon.

Olivia Zaleski (Corry, Pa./Corry Area) is making a strong case to repeat as the North Coast Athletic Conference's Swimmer of the Year after following up Thursday's three victories with three more wins on Friday night from the 2009 NCAC Swimming & Diving Championships from Canton, Ohio.  Overall Denison widened the gap between themselves and Kenyon College to 232 points heading into Saturday's final day of competition.

Denison has totaled 1,301.5 points after 14 events.  Kenyon follows in second with 1,069.5 points and Allegheny is third with 618 points.

Zaleski set new meet records in all three wins.  She got things going early with Ksenia Golovkina, Kate Rich (McMurray, Pa./Peters Township) and Kristen Hohl (Winfield, Ill./Wheaton North) in the 200 medley relay.  The group set a new meet record and a new national record, pending approval, with their time of 1:41.17.  Hohl's 22.54 split in her 50 freestyle sealed the victory for the Big Red.

Zaleski came back in the 100 butterfly and successfully defended her crown with a time of 54.84.  That broke her own NCAC record that was set last year and also swiped current DU assistant coach and 2002 grad Mollie Parrish's school record.  Following Zaleski in second-place was Rich who touched in 56.65.  Laurel Brabson (Boonsboro, Md./Boonsboro) was fourth in 57.45 and Gail Blachly (Indianapolis, Ind./North Central) was eighth in 58.95.

Zaleski's sixth win of the meet came in the 100 backstroke where she stole Beth Galloway of Kenyon's NCAC mark that had stood since 2004.  Her time of 55.78 bested Wooster's Maggie Edwards by nearly three seconds. What it didn't do was erase her NCAA-best time of 55.71 set in December at the Miami Invitational.  Trailing Zaleski in fifth place was freshman Emily Schroeder (Fishers, Ind./Hamilton Southeastern) in 58.33.  Bethany Sabourin (Troy, Mich./Athens) took eighth in 1:00.39.

After placing first, second and sixth in Thursday's 1-meter dive Denison's Brett Balling (Troy, Mich./Troy), Sammie Salas (Fairfax, Va./Robinson Secondary) and Lizzie Litwak (Loudonville, N.Y./Albany Academy for Girls) returned with 86 points on Friday to run their two-day point total in diving to 170.  All of which would go unanswered by Kenyon.  In tonight's 3-meter dive Balling locked up her second conference title of the meet with a score of 359.55.  Salas was second with 338.65 points and Litwak followed with a strong foruth place performance thanks to her score of 304.10.

The diving helped play a big part in Denison's growing lead but the 800 free relay team of Annamarie Novinger (Longmont, Colo./Niwot), Jenny Cunningham (Gainesville, Fla./Gainesville), Breanna Gordon (Mission Viejo, Calif./Santa Margarita) and Hilary Callen (Oswego, N.Y./Oswego) sent their squad back to the hotel with smiles on their faces after their meet record time of 7:32.29.  It was a very strong "B" cut performance by the distance relay team.  It also bested their time from 2008 by 11 seconds.  Kenyon finished second with a time of 7:39.40.

The remaining three events on Friday resulted in 13 top-8 swims for Denison.  Hohl and Callen tied for second place in the 200 free with a time of 1:53.01.  Novinger, a two-time defending champ in the event, placed fourth in 1:53.45. Cunningham and Gordon placed fifth and sixth for DU.

In the 200 breastroke Golovkina was nipped at the wall by Allegheny's Erin Ham.  Golovkina took the lead with a 28.79 split but Ham's final 50 time of 33.67 resulted in a four one-hundredth of a second win for the Gators.  Blachley, Barone and Rochelle Akradi (Eagan, Minn./Eagan) placed fifth, seventh and eighth, respectively.

In the 400 individual medley Kenyon struck back with four of the top five positions and gained 35 points on the Big Red.  Denison's Schroeder, Brenna Broadus (Charlottesville, Va./Western Albemarie), Lauren Pipkin (Lawrence, Kan./Free State) and Sabourin kept the damage at a minimum thanks to their top-eight finishes.  Schroeder led the group with a third place swim and a time of 4:31.38.  Kenyon freshman Kellyn Caldwell won the event with a meet record time of 4:27.73.

Denison will return to C.T. Branin Natatiorium on Saturday with preliminaries beginning at 10 a.m. and the finals of the 1650 freestyle scheduled for 3:30 p.m.  The remaining five events will kick off at 6:30 p.m.

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