Women's Swimming
Women's Swimming & Diving: Denison a close second after first night of NCAC's
Freshman Samantha Salas won the NCAC's 3-meter dive championship on Thursday night. Denison trails Kenyon by just 44 points heading into the second day of competition in Canton, Ohio.
Date: February 14, 2008
Location: CANTON, Ohio
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The Big Red women's swimming and diving team had quite an opening night, winning four of the six events on Thursday night at the North Coast Athletic Conference Championships in Canton, Ohio. Denison currently trails Kenyon by just 44 points heading into Saturday's second day of competition.
DU earned victories in both the 200 free relay and the 400 medley relay while junior Kristen Hohl (Winfield, Ill./Wheaton North) took gold in the 50 freestyle and newcomer Samantha Salas (Fairfax, Va./Robinson Secondary) took the field by storm with a victory in the women's one-meter dive.
The first event of the three-day championship got off to an excellent start for the Big Red as the team of Kate Rich (McMurray, Pa./Peters Township), Hohl, Annamarie Novinger (Longmont, Colo./Niwot) and Olivia Zaleski (Corry, Pa./Corry Area) combined for a time of 1:35.53 to not only win a conference title, but to lock up an automatic spot at nationals next month. Hohl's split of 23.21 seconds was the fastest in the competition and helped Denison edge second-place Kenyon who finished in 1:36.16.
In the 50 free Hohl would put together a performance similar to her split in the 200 free relay, touching in 23.63 seconds to nip her teammate, Zaleski who came in with a time of 23.66. This was Hohl's first individual conference championship and it marked the second time that Zaleski, a sophomore, has placed second in the 50 free at the NCAC Championships.
The 400 medley relay team which was made up of senior Anna Comella (Dover, Ohio/Dover), freshman Ksenia Golovkina (Newton, Mass./Newton South), Rich and Hohl won the event for the second-straight year and bested last year's winning time by more than a second. The foursome's time this year was 3:52.37.
In the one-meter dive Salas turned in a career-best showing of 371.65 points to squeak by Allegheny senior diver, Glenna Kramer who totaled 368.75 points. Another DU freshman, Elizabeth Litwak (Loudonville, N.Y./Albany Academy for Girls) came in eighth with 260.40 points.
That may have rounded out the winners for the Big Red but it doesn't come close to listing all of the top performances on Thursday. The 200 individual medley saw Rich touch in 2:08.26 which placed her second in the event. Senior Ginny Walsh (Austin, Texas/St. Andrews) followed in fourth place with a time of 2:10.03. Both times were NCAA provisional qualifying times and the fourth place finish for Walsh marked the third, top-four finish of her career in the 200 IM. Savannah Mortensen (Albuquerque, N.M./Alburquerue) (seventh), Kathy Faingold (Wexford, Pa./North Allegheny) (ninth), Bethany Sabourin (Troy, Mich./Troy Athens) (10th) and Lauren Pipkin (Lawrence, Kan./Free State) (14th) all helped the Big Red to a total of 127 points in this event.
The second event of the night was the women's 500 freestyle and DU locked up four of the top-10 spots in this race. Jenny Cunningham (Gainesville, Fla./Gainesville) led all Denison swimmers with a sixth place finish and a time of 5:09.19. Novinger was seventh in 5:10.08 and Taylor Blake (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla./Suncoast) took eighth in 5:11.08. Kacey Centrella (Douglassville, Pa./Boyertown Area) and Lauren McKenna (Darien, Conn./Darien) rounded out Denison's top finishers in the race with 10th and 12th place showings, respectively.
Denison will begin Friday's second day of competition with preliminaries beginning at 10:30 a.m. and the finals taking place at 6:30 p.m.