Amherst College’s Kendra Stern set a new NCAA Championships record in the 500 freestyle event and Washington and Jefferson College’s Kaitlyn Orstein also set a new meet record in winning the 200-yard individual medley to highlight first-day action at the 27th Annual NCAA Division III Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships at the University of Miami’s (Ohio) Corwin M. Nixon Aquatic Center.

Kenyon College, the defending champion and winners of 21 of the last 24 national titles, totaled 205 points after six opening-day events for an 83-point lead over second-place Amherst College (122). Denison University (114) is third, Emory University is in fourth (72), and Washington University-St. Louis and Williams College are tied for fifth (71).

Stern set the first meet record of the championships with her 4:52.34 time in the 500-yard freestyle event. That time shaved nearly three seconds off the previous mark set by Denison's Tamara Carty of 4:55.11 back in 2002.

Stern capped her night off as a part of the winning 400-yard freestyle relay, as the Amherst quartet touched the wall in 3:46.87.

In the 200-yard individual medley, Orstein led the field to the wall in championship record time. After breaking the record during the morning preliminaries (2:01.67), she bettered that time in the finals (2:00.27), nipping last year’s event runner-up Brittany Sasser of Amherst (2:01.27).

Rounding out the event winners, Kenyon began the night winning the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:33.55), Kendall Swett of Tufts took home the 1-meter diving competition (455.20), and Emory’s Ruth Westby grabbed the 50-yard freestyle (23.40).

Action in the three-day meet continues on Friday and Saturday with the preliminaries set to begin at 11:00 a.m. and the finals at 6:30 p.m.

Last Updated: March 15, 2008 • Peter James (Webmaster) · Hugh Howard (S.I.D.) · Matt Dilyard (Photographer)
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