GRANVILLE, Ohio – NCAA Div. III's preeminent swimming and diving conference championships opened Wednesday night at Denison University's Trumbull Aquatics Center, and The College of Wooster swimming and diving team recorded two top-four finishes to open the 2023 North Coast Athletic Conference Championships.

Sophomore Ollie Bream, first-year Lacey Mindock, sophomore JP Timken, and junior Emma Connors started things off with the fourth-place time of 7:50.35 in the 800 freestyle relay. On the men's side, junior Josh Pearson, sophomore Ryan Gross, first-year Callum Glover, and senior Doak Schultz were within three seconds of the program's six-year-old program record at 6:52.14. That was good for a fourth-place showing.

In the 200 medley relay, Wooster's quartet of first-year Will Laymon, senior Noah Golovan, Pearson, and Glover's 1:34.35 was just over a second off the program's decade-old school record of 1:33.11. The Scots earned a promotion to fifth-place in that relay after DePauw University was sent off with a disqualification due to an early takeoff. Unfortunately, Wooster's women were disqualified as well in the event due to a false start.

Kenyon College leads the men's field with 140 points, and the Owls are followed by Denison (124 points), Wabash College (118 points), Wooster (114 points), and Oberlin College (114) points. Kenyon leads 269-226 over Denison on the women's side, while DePauw (120 points) and Oberlin (114) round out the top four after night one. Due to its disqualification in the 200 medley relay, Wooster is in seventh-place and will look to springboard up the standings during Thursday's events.

Thursday's preliminaries get underway at 9:30 a.m., while finals start at 6 p.m.