The Johns Hopkins women's swim team parlayed seven titles into a program-best third-place finish at the NCAA championship Saturday night in Indianapolis.
The Blue Jays accumulated 387 points over the course of the championship to finish with the bronze trophy. Hopkins completed its sweep of the relay titles by winning the 400 freestyle relay in the final event of the championship. Emory claimed its fifth straight title with 595.5 points, while Kenyon took second (456.5), Denison took fourth (374.5) and Williams took fifth (272).
Hopkins is the first team to sweep all five relay titles since Kenyon did so in 2004. The Blue Jays also took home the 50 and 200 free individual titles at the championship. George Kennedy was named the NCAA Women's Swimming Coach of the Year, and junior Ana Bogdanovski was named the NCAA Women's Swimmer of the Year. Before this season, Hopkins has never finished higher than fifth and had won three NCAA titles.
As they had done in the previous three relays, the Blue Jays came from behind to win. Senior Sarah Rinsma led the relay off with a 50.59 leg, a career best and the ninth-fastest time in program history. Senior Kylie Ternes followed with a 50.98 leg and then junior Sammi Fox went 52.08. When Bogdanovski went into the water, Hopkins was in second place by 1.30 seconds. She made up the difference, and then some, as she beat Kenyon's Jenner McLeod to the wall by 0.40 of a second. The Blue Jays broke the school record with a time of 3:22.44 to complete their sweep of the relays and cap a historic performance. In addition to the title, the quartet earned first-team All-America honors.
Rinsma opened the final night of the championship with a seventh-place finish in the consolation final of the 100 free. She finished in 51.76 to place 15th overall and earn honorable mention All-America honors. Bogdanovski followed with a silver-medal finish in the championship final, breaking her own school record with a time of 49.66. She also earned first-team All-America honors. Fox then took seventh in the consolation final of the 200 back, swimming a finals time of 2:03.25. She earned honorable mention All-America accolades. In the final swim of her career, Kitayama grabbed silver in the championship final of the 200 back. She touched in 1:58.74, the third-fastest time in program history, and earned first-team All-America honors.
Kitayama, Rinsma and Bogdanovski each earned seven All-America honors at the championship. Kitayama did so for the third time in her career and finishes as the program's all-time leader with 25 All-America honors. Rinsma finishes with 22 All-America honors, which is tied for third most in school history. Bogdanovski now has 17 All-America honors as she earned seven at one championship for the second time. Ternes picked up six All-America honors to bring her career total to 12, tied for 15th in school history. Fox now has five career All-America honors after grabbing four at this year's championship. Junior Maggie Storm picked up two All-America honors and now counts three in her career. Freshman Abby Brown earned a pair of All-America honors, while classmates Pilar Shimizu and Shirley Chan and sophomore Ellen Marcus each earned one.