INDIANAPOLIS – The Kenyon women won their 24th national title in program history, first since 2009, after the Ladies accumulated 446 points over four days of action at the 2022 NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships at the IU Natatorium on the campus of IUPUI in Indianapolis.
The 24 national titles top all women's programs in any sport and any division of the NCAA. The Kenyon men have won an NCAA-record 34 national titles and rounded out the top five at this meet with 282.5 points.
Coming into Saturday's final session, Kenyon, Emory and Denison were separated by just 4.5 points in the standings. Kenyon started its winning role in the second event. Kenyon senior Emmie Mirus captured the national championship in the 100-yard freestyle. An All-American and now a four-time NCAA event champion, Mirus finally added an individual event title to her Kenyon career. She won the race in 49.90, which was a personal best. Kenyon’s other super senior, Crile Hart, kept the Kenyon streak going. Winning her sixth event in as many attempts at this championship, Hart took gold in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 1:56.54.
The championship finale was the 400-yard freestyle relay. To ensure the championship trophy, the Ladies had to finish no worse than sixth place in the event. Their relay team got off to a bit of a slow start, but Hart and Mirus finished the last two legs, bringing Kenyon back from eighth place to a third-place finish and earning just enough points to secure the championship.
At the end of the meet, Hart was named the Division III Swimmer of the Year for the second time in her career. Throughout the four days, Hart set four records and won six events, including taking individual titles in the 100-yard butterfly, the 200-yard backstroke and the 200-yard individual medley.
Additionally, Jess Book was named the co-Division III Coach of the Year. It was the third time in his Kenyon career that he earned the national honor.
The Kenyon men's swimming and diving team finished fifth to Emory University. Following the last event, Kenyon’s Israel Zavaleta was named the NCAA Diver of the Year, Bryan Fitzgerald earned Swimmer of the Year, and Ron Kontura earned Dive Coach of the Year.
Zavaleta became the first Kenyon diver to win the honor since John Butcher in 1995. Kontura won the coach's trophy for the first time at Kenyon and became the first Kenyon coach to win the award since Fletcher Gilders won in 1995. Fitzgerald follows David Fitch winning the same award in 2019.
In the first swimming event of the night, Fitzgerald finished the 1,650-yard freestyle eighth overall with a time of 15:21.91. During the morning session, Yurii Kosian broke the Division III record in the 200-yard backstroke with a blazing time of 1:43.43. Kosian’s preliminary heat time beat the Kenyon record by six hundredths of a second. Kosian’s record didn’t last long as he broke it himself, with a 1:42.90 to take second in the finals to Whitman’s Tanner Filion, who broke Kosian’s record by almost two seconds, clocking in at 1:41.49.
