Persistence is critical when attempting to win a championship. For the Hopkins women's swimming team, persistence was the main theme of the weekend as they continued to improve every single day.
While many Hopkins students were at home relaxing during spring break, the Lady Jays travelled to Indianapolis, Ind. to compete at the 2014 NCAA Championship. Throughout the course of the weekend, program records were broken, and history was continuously rewritten as the ladies captured a program-best third place finish at the championship. Prior to this season, Hopkins had never finished higher than fifth at the NCAAs. Emory claimed first place for the fifth year in the row with an astonishing 595.5 points while Kenyon took second place by finishing the championship with 456.5 points.
Meanwhile, the Lady Jays accumulated an impressive 387 points over the course of the championship to seal the bronze trophy. However, even more impressive were the numerous individual and team titles that were earned throughout the weekend. The team completed a full sweep of the relay events at the tournament by capturing first place in the 200, 400 and 800 Free Relay races while taking home the gold in the 200 and 400 Medley Relay races. Hopkins was the first team since Kenyon in 2004 to take home all five relay titles.
In addition, junior Ana Bogdanovski captured an addition two titles for Hopkins by claiming first place in the 50 Free event with a time of 22.80 seconds as well as the 200 Free, finishing the race at 1:47.74. As a result of her tremendous accomplishments throughout the season and her performances at the championship, Bogdanovski was named the NCAA Women's Swimmer of the Year. Head coach George Kennedy was also recognized as the NCAA Women's Swimming Coach of the Year for leading the Lady Jays to their best finish at NCAAs in the program's history.
As mentioned above, the Lady Jays continuously improved as the championship went on. They remained determined to make this tournament the highlight of the season. In almost every single one of the relay events, Hopkins had to come from behind to claim first place. Senior Sarah Rinsma played a critical role in the 200, 400 and 800 Free Relay races as well as the 200 Medley Relay race. Rinsma led the way in the 400 race just after the Lady Jays had claimed first place in the other four relay events. Rinsma completed her leg in 50.59 seconds, a career best for the senior and the ninth best overall in program history.
Following Rinsma was fellow senior Kylie Ternes, who notched a time of 50.98 seconds before junior Sammi Fox finished out the third leg of the race with a time of 52.08 seconds. With one leg left and trailing Kenyon by a second and a half, Bogdanovski was not overwhelmed by the pressure as she calmly and swiftly stormed past the Kenyon competitor to seal the victory and a sweep of the relay events. The time set by the Jays broke the previous school record by several seconds as the four swimmers completed the 400 Relay with a time of 3:22.44. In addition to winning the title and capping off an unfathomable stretch of relay victories, the squad of Rinsma, Ternes, Fox and Bogdanovski earned First Team All-America honors.
The accolades continued to come for the mighty Jays as several swimmers were recognized by the NCAA. In addition to helping the team sweep all five relay events, Bogdanovski earned first place in both the 50 Free and 200 Free race, setting program records of 22.80 seconds and 1:47.74 respectively. On top of that, Bogdanovski also set the school record in the 100 Free with a time of 49.66 seconds, shattering the previous record and finishing off the race in second place. Other school records that were broken included senior Taylor Kitayama's time in the 100 Meter Back race with a time of 53.61 seconds, leading to a silver medal finish. Freshman Abby Brown also broke the previous school record in the 200 meter Fly race with a time of 2:03.96.
As if the weekend wasn't impressive enough for the Lady Jays, 10 Hopkins swimmers earned at least one All-America honor at the NCAA Championship. Kitiyama, Rinsma and Bogdanovski each earned seven All-America honors respectively throughout the course of the weekend. Kitiyama now holds the program's record as the all time leader in All-America honors with 25. Rinsma finished her career with 22 honors, good enough for third all-time in Hopkins history. Meanwhile, Bogdanovski now holds 17 All-America honors as she earned seven at one championship for the second time in three years. Ternes picked up six All-America honors, while Fox grabbed an addition four. Finally, junior Maggie Storm and Brown each grabbed two honors while freshman classmates Pilar Shimizu and Shirley Chan and sophomore Ellen Marcus each earned on All-America honor.
A program best third-place finish, 10 All-America athletes and several broken Hopkins swimming records capped off a very successful season for the Lady Jays. As the team heads into the offseason, they will look to build off of one of the best performances in Hopkins swimming history.
