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Women's Swimming

Women's Swimming & Diving: Championship totals rise as Big Red place second at NCAC Championship

Kristen Hohl embraces Olivia Zaleski after the pair placed 1-2 in the women's 100 freestyle. Zaleski was named the 2008 Female Swimmer of the Year.

Date: February 16, 2008
Location: CANTON, Ohio
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Al Pacino famously pontificated in the movie Any Given Sunday that "inches are all around us." On Saturday night, after 19 events and a bevy of nail bitting moments, the night's final race, the women's 400 free relay, was for all the marbles.  A victory for Denison in the event and the Big Red would win their second North Coast Athletic Conference championship.  A win by Kenyon and the Ladies would walk away with their 24th championship.

Denison got off to a strong start in the relay behind Kate Rich (McMurray, Pa./Peters Twp.) and Kristen Hohl (Winfield, Ill./Wheaton North).  In the third leg Annamarie Novinger held off Kenyon's Jessica Wise and the race came down to a dual between Kenyon's Brittany Hurd and Denison's Olivia Zaleski (Corry, Pa./Corry Area).  Denison held a lead for 99 of the final 100 meters but a last second stretch by Hurd forced every set of eyes in C.T. Branin Natitorium to the scoreboard where it proved Hurd's 51.86 split nipped the Big Red by just over one tenth of a second.  That inch by Hurd resulted in a 1630-1615 win by Kenyon.

Despite coming so close in the final event, the Big Red ran their victory count to 11 on Saturday following championship performances by Hohl, Ksenia Golovkina (Newton, Mass./Newton South) and Samantha Salas (Fairfax, Va./Robinson Secondary) which put the Big Red in a chance for the title at the end of the night.

The third event of the night saw the Big Red make a big splash at the top of the leaderboard in the 100 freestyle.  Hohl won her second individual championship of the meet and in the process, edged out her teammate, Zaleski to take the gold.  Hohl turned in a time of 51.80 and was followed by Zaleski's time of 52.21.  Junior sprinter and 200 free champ Novinger placed sixth in 53.57 and sophomore Brittany Oxley (Knoxville, Tenn./Bearden) rounded out the DU performers with a ninth place finish.   

Golovkina put a stamp on her inaugural NCAC Championship meet with her fourth victory in three days.  Golovkina swept the breaststroke events with tonight's win in the 200.  She turned in a time of 2:32.22 which is a "B" cut time.  Kathy Faingold (Wexford, Pa./North Allegheny) followed her second place finish a year ago with a bronze in the 200 breaststroke in 2:24.90.

Salas was named the NCAC's Female Diver of the Year following her sweep in the one and three meter dives.  In Saturday night's one-meter competition she totaled 366.05 points to lock up the victory.  Freshman Elizabeth Litwak (Loudonville, N.Y./Albany Academy for Girls) followed with a strong fifth place showing of 285.25 that enabled the Big Red's relay team to have a shot at the end.

The Kenyon Ladies put a little distance between themselves and the Big Red in the 200 backstroke despite Denison's four, top-10 swims.  Kenyon locked up the top-four spots and was led by Kate Coker's time of 2:04.04.  Denison's top-finisher was senior Anna Comella (Dover, Ohio/Dover) who placed fifth with a time of 2:09.09.  Senior Savannah Mortensen (Albuquerque, N.M./Albuquerque) notched her third top-seven showing at this year's championship with a sixth place finish and a time of 2:09.11.  Another senior, Ginny Walsh (Austin, Texas/St. Andrews), trailed Mortensen with a time of 2:09.24 and freshman Bethany Sabourin (Troy, Mich./Troy Athens) took 10th in 2:13.92. 

The first event of the night saw freshman Taylor Blake (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla./Suncoast) improve her career-best time in the 1650 freestyle by more than seven seconds.  Blake covered the mile long swim in 17:39.57 and placed third.  Sophomore Jenny Cunningham (Gainesville, Fla./Gainesville) came in fourth with a time of 17:52.36. 

Senior Christine Wissink (Cortland, N.Y./Cortland) returned to defend her title in the 200 butterfly and came up just shy, placing second behind Kenyon's Danielle Arad.  Wissink notched a "B" cut time of 2:08.19.  Kacey Centrella (Douglassville, Pa./Boyertown Area) followed in fourth place with a provisional qualifying time of 2:09.  Taking seventh and eighth place was junior Lauren McKenna (Darien, Conn./Darien) who touched in 2:12.34 and freshman Lauren Pipkin (Lawrence, Kan./Free State) who logged a time of 2:13.56.

In the post-championship awards ceremony Salas was named the women's diver of the year, Zaleski earned female swimmer of the year and Gregg Parini picked up coach of the year honors.