The Emory University women's swimming and diving team claimed its third-consecutive NCAA Title and fifth overall in the program's history, with another dominating performance during the 2012 NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships.
Emory has now won the NCAA Division III Women's Swimming and Diving Championship in 2005, 2006, 2010, 2011 and 2012. This year's title marks the 13th in the history of the Emory Athletics program. Along with the five from the swimming and diving team, women's tennis has won five, men's tennis two and volleyball one.
The Eagles accumulated 639 points during the four days of the meet, the most ever by an Emory squad at the NCAA Championships. The Eagles bested second-place Williams College (453 points) and third-place Denison University (420 points).
The highlight of the final day was Sadie Nennig's individual victory in the 200-yard backstroke, as the sophomore became the third-straight Eagle to win the event after senior Anne Culpepper had won it in each of the previous two seasons. Nennig won the event with a time of 1:58.86 to claim her first career individual National Championship.
The title was the first in an individual event during the meet by an Eagle and 25th individual National Championship in the program's history. It was Nennig's first career individual title, and the fourth total National Title in her career.
Emory also defended its title in the 400-yard freestyle relay, as sophomore Renee Rosenkranz, junior Anna Dobben,freshman Nancy Larson and senior Claire Pavlak won the event with a school-record time of 3:22.02, besting their time from last year's championship meet. The Eagles have now won the event at Nationals in each of the last three seasons.
It was the 35th National Championship overall for Emory, 11 of which have come in relay events. Pavlak capped off her Emory career with nine Championships, four more than any other swimmer in the program's history.
Also on the final day, Culpepper finished fourth in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:00.11, and juniorTaryn Lushinsky finished fifth with a mark of 2:00.38, as each earned all-America certificates. Senior Whitley Taylor finished 10th (2:01.83), and junior Jacqueline Schneider claimed 11th-place (2:02.25) to earn honorable mentions.
Two Eagles claimed all-America honors in the women's 1,650-yard freestyle, as freshman McKenna Newsum-Schoenberg finished fifth with a time of 17:04.36, and sophomore Courtney McDermott claimed seventh place with a time of 17:09.20.
Emory was also well represented on the podium for the 100-yard freestyle, as Dobben finished third (50.52 seconds), Rosenkranz fourth (50.67 seconds) and Pavlak fifth (50.74). Larson earned an all-America honorable mention, finishing 11th with a time of 51.23 seconds.
In the 200-yard breaststroke, junior Mia Michalak finished eighth with a time of 2:19.87 (including a mark of 2:19.53 in the preliminaries) to win an all-America certificate, her second of the meet. Both freshman Megan Beach (10th, 2:19.71 in the prelims) and sophomore Brooke Woodward (11th, 2:20.42) finished with honorable mentions.
All together, Emory amassed 28 all-America honors (23 in individual events and five in relays) in addition to 17 honorable mention finishes. Included in that group is Nennig's championship in the 200-yard backstroke, and titles in the 200-yard medley, 200-yard freestyle and 400-yard freestyle relays.
The meet concludes the 2012 season for the Emory Eagles.