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Women's Swimming

Women's Swimming: Big Red Primed for 2008 Nationals

Denison will send 12 swimmers to the NCAA D-III Championships in Oxford beginning this Thursday (March 13).

Date: March 11, 2008
Location: GRANVILLE
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Four seniors, two juniors, three sophomores and three first-year's make up this year's batch of Denison qualifiers to the 2008 NCAA Division III Swimming & Diving Championships slated to begin this Thursday (March 13) at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

Junior Kristen Hohl (Winfield, Ill./Wheaton North) leads the Big Red into action.  This is her third national meet and the freestyle sprint star enters the meet with the nation's fastest time in the 50 free (23.63) and the third fastest time in the 100 free.

Sophomore Olivia Zaleski (Corry, Pa./Corry Area) was spectacular in her first appearance at the NCAA Division III Championships last year when she logged seven top-eight finishes.  Zaleski placed fifth in the 100 fly, eighth in the 50 free, sixth in the 100 free while swimming on the 200, 400, 800 free relays along with the 400 medley relay.  This year Zaleski enters with the nation's top time in the 100 fly (55.31) and is among the nation's leaders in the 50 and 100 freestyles.

Junior Annamarie Novinger (Longmont, Colo./Niwot) is back for her third trip to nationals and has been one of the Big Red's most valuable swimmers since 2006.  Her top individual event is the 200 free where she is seeded ninth entering the meet.  She swam on five relays last season and was a part of three relays during her rookie season and was a part of Denison's second-place finish in the 200 free relay in '06.

First-year Ksenia Golovkina (Newton, mass./Newton South) has cemented herself as the go-to swimmer for the Big Red in the breaststroke events.  Golovkina locked up a pair of individual North Coast Athletic Conference Championships in the 100 and 200 breaststrokes and also swam on relay championship squads in the 200 medley and 400 medley relays.  She has the nation's fourth fastest time in the 100 breaststroke which will take place on Friday (March 14).

Another rookie, Bethany Sabourin (Troy, Mich./Troy Athens), will lead DU in the backstroke events along with senior Anna Comella (Dover, Ohio/Dover).  Sabourin has the 14th best time in the 100 backstroke and also swam on the conference championship 200 medley relay team last month in Canton, Ohio.  Comella is making her second-straight appearance at nationals.  Last year she was a part of the sixth place 400 medley relay team and also placed 17th and 20th, respectively in the 100 and 200 backstroke.

Seniors Christine Wissink (Cortland, N.Y./Cortland) and Ginny Walsh (Austin, Texas./St. Andrews) will each be making their fourth straight appearance at nationals and are the veteran leaders of this year's team.  Wissink will compete in the 100 and 200 meter butterfly and has six top-20 finishes to her credit over the last three years at the NCAA Championships.  Walsh, who competes in the individual medley events for the Big Red has the 17th quickest time in the 400 IM this year.  In 2005 she placed 10th in the 100 and 200 backstroke and last year's logged a pair of 15th place finishes in the 400 IM and the 200 back.

While Wissink and Walsh bring a load of experience to the table, senior Kacey Centrella (Douglassville, Pa./Boyertown) is making her first appearance at nationals thanks to her performance this season in the 200 butterfly.  Centrella's time of 2:07.67 ranks ninth entering the meet.  She will compete for the 200 fly title on Saturday (March 15).

Sophomore's Kathy Faingold (Wexford, Pa./North Allegheny) and Kate Rich (McMurray, Pa./Peters Township) along with first-year Taylor Blake (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla./Suncoast) round out Denison's 12 person roster.  Faingold was kept plenty busy at last year's championship.  She swam in eight events (four relays) and placed sixth in the 200 breaststroke.  This year she will compete along with Golovkina in the breaststroke events and will swim on a number of Denison's relay teams. 

Rich will compete in the butterfly and the individual medley events and will swim on a number of relays.  She has the seventh fastest time in the 100 fly and posted a 21st place finish in the 100 fly last year.

Distance freestyler Blake will compete in the 500 free and the mile this weekend.  Blake placed third at the NCAC Championships in the 1650 free and is 17th nationally entering the meet.

Denison is coming off a fifth place finish at the 2007 NCAA Division III Championships in Houston, Texas.  DU's 12 swimmers is the fourth most at the meet.  Kenyon leads the qualifiers with 18 followed by Williams (15) and Emory (13).  Trailing Denison with 11 competitors is Middlebury followed by Amherst (10) and Calvin (9).