NCAA Division III Women’s Championships: Record Book Torched on Second Night; Kenyon Extends Lead

OXFORD, Ohio, March 14. THE second night of swimming at the NCAA Division III Women's Championships featured an astonishingly quick session, quite possibly one of the fastest ever in the division, as a DIII record fell in all but one event.

The top-end talent of the rest of the division was not enough to hold Kenyon back from making a serious move toward its 22nd team title in 25 years. Kenyon held a commanding lead with 389.5 points by the end of the night, while Amherst sat in second with 255 points. Denison owned third with 240 points, while Williams (193.5) and Emory (190) made up the rest of the top five.

The night started off with a bang as Denison cleared its 200 medley relay DIII standard with a time of 1:43.19. The team of Olivia Zaleski, Ksenia Golovkina, Kate Rich and Kristen Hohl cleared the previous record of 1:43.37 set by Denison in 2001. The performance also held of Kenyon's quartet of Brittany Hurd, Tracy Menzel, Danielle Arad and Elizabeth Carlton, which finished second in 1:43.54.

The records kept falling as four swimmers eclipsed the 400 IM standard of 4:22.75 set by Emily Lesher of Nazareth a year ago. Amanda Nicholson of Williams, however, wound up claiming the record in the end with a winning 4:20.31. Lesher, meanwhile, placed second in 4:20.50, while Lauren Brady of Kenyon (4:21.01) and Meredith Nordbrook of Washington (4:22.19) each wound up under the standard.

Something special must have been in the water as the third straight event produced a DIII standard. Ava Kiss of The College of New Jersey erased the 100 fly record (55.16) of Mollie Parrish from 2002.

Another race, another DIII record as Amherst's Kendra Stern put together another remarkable swim for the 200 free title. Stern snatched the standard with a winning effort of 1:47.19 as she shattered the 1:49.02 set by Calvin's Becky Weima from 2006. That gave Stern her second DIII record of the meet after setting the 500 free with a 4:52.34 yesterday.

The 100 breaststroke stopped the fire torching the record books as Kaitlyn Orstein of Washington and Jefferson finished first in 1:02.35. That finished well short of the 1:00.54 set by Lindsay Payne of Williams in 2006.

The record-breaking continued after a brief respite in the 100 back as Brittany Sasser of Amherst cleared the 54-second threshold for the first time with a time of 53.85. That lowered her 54.50 set during prelims that had erased her 54.72 from 2007.

Amherst closed out a stunning day by devastating the school's previous DIII record of 7:29.50 in the 800 free relay from a year ago. The foursome of Kendra Stern, Sasser, Alex Lee and Meaghan Stern put together a scintillating swim of 7:22.78.

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