The men's and women's swimming and diving teams finished off their seasons in spectacular fashion last weekend at the NCAA Division III Championships in Shenandoah, Texas, with the women claiming their fourth consecutive national championship and the men earning a fifth-place finish.
It was the sixth national title in program history for the women's team – the most of any Emory athletic program – and it was not even close.
The Eagles racked up 619 points during the meet's four days, comfortably topping second-place Kenyon College (Ohio), who earned 483 points.
Although the Eagles led throughout the entirety of the four-day meet, the lead was not safe until the final day of competition. Kenyon trailed Emory by just 53.5 points after three days.
Their highlight performance – and the one that clinched the national title – came in the meet's last event, the 400-yard freestyle relay, where the Eagles' team of senior Renee Rosenkranz, sophomore Nancy Larson, senior Ann Wolber and senior Anna Dobben claimed a victory with a Division III record time of 3:21.28.
The same team also earned first place in the 200-yard freestyle relay.
It was a fitting way for Wolber, Rosenkranz and Dobben to end the Emory swimming careers. Wolber earned her sixth first-place national finish, while Rosenkranz and Dobben finished with two apiece.
The Eagles also turned in a startling 26 All-American performances. Dobben, Rosenkranz and Larson all added to an already fantastic meet by earning All-America honors in the 100-yard freestyle finished fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively.
Sophomore McKenna Newsum-Schoenberg placed sixth in the 1,650-yard freestyle, with junior Courtney McDermott right on her tail in seventh place. Both earned All-America honors, while freshman Mikayla Carnley was named as an honorable mention with a ninth-place finish.
Meanwhile, junior Sadie Nennig continued her dominance in the 200-yard backstroke with her third straight All-America performance. She finished fifth in the event with a time of 1:59.21.
The 200-yard breaststroke was another key event for Emory, with five Eagles placing. Junior Kylie McKenzie led the way in sixth place, closely followed by sophomore Megan Beach in seventh, junior Brooke Woodward in eight, freshman Elizabeth Aranoff in ninth and senior Mia Michalak in 12th place.
Earning her first ever All-America certificate was sophomore Nina Zook, who finished fourth in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:01.86, which broke the longest-standing Emory record, set by Leigh Psaris in 2006. All in all, the Eagles totaled two individual national championships, 31 All-America certificates between the individual and relay events and 15 honorable mentions.
The men's team was nearly as dominant, putting up 280 points to fall just shy of fourth-place Johns Hopkins University (Md.). Kenyon won the meet with 499.5 points. The team earned 12 All-America certificates and eight honorable mentions.
They too were fairly secure in their fifth-place position for the entirety of the meet. A strong final day solidified Emory's spot among the top five teams in the nation.
The Eagles earned one individual national championship on the men's side, courtesy of senior Miller Douglas in the 200-yard butterfly. Douglas ended his Emory career with ten All-America certificates.
Douglas credited his performance to a unique strategy.
"I recently discovered ... that singing a song while I'm racing keeps my mind off my competitors," he said. "That's what I was doing."
Other seniors that put in strong performances in their final meet as an Eagle included Peter O'Brien and Justin Beegle, who earned All-America honors in the 200-yard breaststroke.
Freshman Andrew Wilson finished seventh in the event with a time of 2:01.46.
O'Brien finished his collegiate career with 12 All-America certificates and six honorable mentions.
The Eagles' final event of the meet was yet another one to remember, as the relay team of Douglas, junior Jake Stephens, senior Jeff Simpson and junior Ross Spock also qualified for All-America status with a seventh-place finish in the 400 yard freestyle relay and a time of 3:01.51.
Spock, though just a junior, has already built up an illustrious career as an Eagle. He earned his 14th All-America certificate during the weekend, tying him for third-most in program history.
He needs just three more in his senior season to tie the record, set by Justin Hake from 2002 to 2006.
Additionally, Spock's time in the preliminaries of the 100-yard backstroke of 48.67 broke his own school record, set at last year's NCAA Championships.
Senior Stephen Czaja was not far behind, placing 15th with a time of 50.45 seconds. It was Czaja's first career honorable mention.
The future of the program appears bright as well. Wilson, just a freshman, made a splash in his first crack at national collegiate competition, not only earning All-America honors with a fourth-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke but also setting a new school record in the event with a time of 55.44.
The meets closed out fantastic seasons for both teams that saw them breeze through their conference meets on en route to earning University Athletic Association (UAA) championships and adding another chapter to the impressive legacy of the Emory swimming and diving program. With a strong base of underclassmen that keeps toppling school records – led by swimmers like Carnley and Wilson – both teams should be formidable for years to come.
– By Ryan Smith
