Owls win two more events, take NCAA bronze

With two more event titles on Saturday, the Kenyon College Owls wrapped up the four-day 2026 NCAA Division III Women’s Swimming & Diving Championship with a total of six event titles, 380 points, and a third-place finish in the final team standings for the second straight season.

New York University won the NCAA trophy with 517 team points and Emory University was runner up with 433.5 points. Behind Kenyon in the final standings were Denison University (304) in fourth and Williams College (282.5) in fifth place.

Kenyon’s first title-winning swim on Saturday came from senior Molly Haag, who won the 1,650-yard freestyle in a time of 16:37.04. That mark was a personal best and resulted in her second event title of the championship, as well as her 17th career All-America award. In the same race, teammate and sophomore Nora Lee Brown posted a time of 17:02.12 for ninth place and her sixth career All-America honor.

When distance moved to sprint, Kenyon saw senior Lisa Torrecillas-Jouault claim 13th place in the 100-yard freestyle. She touched in 50.62, hauling in her 15th career All-America award.

At that point, New York opened a triple-digit lead over the rest of the field, but Haag, Brown, and Torrecillas-Jouault helped Kenyon pull within 14.5 points of second-place Emory.

Up next was the 200-yard backstroke, an event in which Emory had three swimmers earn points in the evening session. For Kenyon, senior Gwen Eisenbeis was the lone evening pointer-getter. She turned in a 14th-place finish, clocking in at 2:00.68. The results of the race extended Emory’s lead over Kenyon to 47.5 points.

Kelsey Van Eldik then recorded Kenyon’s final individual event title of the championship. She won the 200-yard breaststroke, pulling off the sweep after taking the 100-yard breaststroke last night. Her 200 time on Saturday was 2:11.70, more than two seconds off her seed time and nearly three seconds better than her previous best. Van Eldik now has three NCAA event titles to her credit, as well as seven career All-America awards.

The championship came to a close with the 400-yard freestyle relay. The Owls sent out Eisenbeis, Haag, Kate Bogan, and Torrecillas-Jouault. They came back in with a fourth-place time of 3:21.81. It was the final collegiate swim for seniors Eisenbeis, Haag, and Torrecillas-Jouault who racked up 15, 17, and 16 career All-America awards, respectively.