GAMBIER, Ohio -- Kenyon suffered a setback and slipped into a fourth-place finish to conclude their home invitational inside the James Steen Aquatic Center. The ladies featured four top-five individual finishes but were unable to surpass their NCAA Division I counterparts.
For the second day, sophomore Katie Kaestner served as Kenyon's top finisher on an individual front. Kaestner took home a third-place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke behind a 2:22.59 event time, finishing in a mix of Ohio State and Cincinnati swimmers. Her time met the standard for the Division III B-cut in that event.
Mariah Williamson gave Kenyon a second bright spot, taking away two top-five finishes on the day. Her first came after the sophomore finished fourth in the 200-yard butterfly (2:08.93). Williamson was just 0.57 seconds away from taking a spot on the podium despite swimming the fastest 25 yards in the final trip toward the wall (33.21). Her second came in the 1,000-yard freestyle where she served as the first non-Ohio State swimmer to touch the wall, doing so in 10:26.21.
Georgia Tech 159, No. 1 Emory 140
ATLANTA -- Top-ranked Emory outscored Georgia Tech in the swimming events, including seven event victories, but were edged in the final score by the Yellow Jackets 159-140.
Sophomore Ellie Thompson was the leader for Emory, claiming wins in both the backstroke events with times of 57.04 seconds in the 100-yard backstroke and 2:04.24 in the 200-yard backstroke, each good for an NCAA 'B' cut. Thompson also teamed with freshman Annelise Kowalsky, junior Nina Zook and junior Nancy Larson to win the 400-yard medley relay with a 'B' cut time of 3:52.71.
No. 4 Johns Hopkins 134, No. 9 Stevens Institute 119
BALTIMORE -- In a battle of top-10 teams, Johns Hopkins won seven of the first 11 events to defeat visiting Stevens Tech 134-119 Saturday. The fourth-ranked Blue Jays improve to 5-1 on the season on a day in which they honored their four seniors and one graduating junior. The ninth-ranked Ducks fall to 1-2 on the season with the loss.
Hopkins once again opened the meet with a sweep of the top three spots in a relay, picking up 15 quick points in the team standings. Seniors Taylor Kitayama, Katie Rownd, Kylie Ternes and Sarah Rinsma led the way with a winning time of 1:51.16. The team of junior Hannah Benn, freshmen Pilar Shimizu and Abby Brown and junior Ana Bogdanovski took second place in 1:51.79.
Freshman Lindsay Kriz was the top Blue Jay in the 1000 Free, with a career-best time of 11:00.30 for third place. Arose followed in fourth place with a time of 11:06.90. Sophomore Ellen Marcus then claimed second place in the 200 free with a time of 1:67.92. Sophomore Sean McGrath claimed third place (1:58.78) and freshman Emily Lubin claimed fourth (1:59.34). Kitayama then led a sweep of the top three spots in the 100 Back by Hopkins with a pool-record time of 56.66. The time broke her own pool record, set in 2010, by 1.02 seconds and is an NCAA B time. Yau followed in second place in 1:00.32 and Bogdanovski took third in 1:00.54.
No. 5 Williams at Wesleyan, Connecticut College
MIDDLETOWN, Conn. -- Williams improved to 6-0 today with convincing wins against Connecticut College (202-92) and Wesleyan (216-83).
The Williams women have never lost to Connecticut College winning all seven contests to date and the Ephs have also never lost to Wesleyan. Williams has defeated the Cardinals 35 consecutive times.
The win against Wesleyan coupled with the win last week at Amherst secures the 2014 Little Three title for the Ephs.
As noted by head coach Steve Kuster, the meet started off with a significant statement by the women in the opening 200-yd medley relay. In what proved to be a tight race with Connecticut's assorted relay teams, the Ephwomen touched the wall in 1st, 3rd and 4th places. The winning combination of Lauren Jones, Breanna Nguyen, Sarah Thompson, and Faye Sultan came in with an eye-widening time of 1:47.80, one of the team's best relay times so far this season.
No. 6 Washington (Mo.), Illinois State
BLOOMINGTON, Ill. -- Four individuals won events for Washington (Mo.), but the Bears came up short in a 198-102 dual loss at NCAA Division I Illinois State on Saturday afternoon.
Sophomore Sophie Gan, senior Chi Pham, sophomore Amanda Stadermann and junior Sara Taege each posted first-place finishes for Washington U. at the dual. Overall, the Bears finished with 16 top-three finishes in the 16-event dual.
Gan won the 200 breaststroke for the Bears with a time of 2:25.08, which was more than two seconds ahead of the runner-up finisher for the Redbirds. Pham was nearly four seconds ahead of the second-place finisher in the 200 individual medley, clocking a winning time of 2:11.71. Stadermann won the 200 butterfly in 2:09.61, and added a third-place finish in the 100 butterfly in 1:00.55. Freshman Connie Gan edged Stadermann by .02 in the 100 butterfly, finishing second in 1:00.53.
No. 8 MIT 213, Tufts 80
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- MIT hosted Tufts on Saturday, after switching the location of the meet following facility problems at the Jumbos' pool. Of the 16 events, MIT won all but two of them, ending the weekend with a 213-80 victory against Tufts.
Tech's divers started the weekend off right, competing on the 1-meter and 3-meter boards on Friday, wrapping up the day with 22 points compared to Tufts' nine. MIT took the top two spots on 1-meter, with sophomore Grace Connors leading the way with a score of 292.87 and senior Jessica Wass coming in second place with 264.07, both earning zone-qualifying scores. On 3-meter, Wass easily won with her 281.32, leaving a gap of more than 50 points between her and the second place finisher.
At the swimming portion of the meet on Saturday, The Engineers kick-started the day by taking first through third in the 200-yard medley relay. MIT's A relay, which was made up of senior Christy Rogers, freshman Emily Tsang, and sophomores Danielle Garside and Lena Yang, touched in first with a time of 1:50.25. Touching just hundredths of a second apart in second and third were the B and C relays, which finished with times of 1:54.47 and 1:54.52 respectively.
