MIAMI, Ohio -- Samantha Kephart and Natalie Turner each turned in another All-American performance on Saturday to lead Whitworth University to its first-ever top ten finish at the NCAA Division III Women's Swimming and Diving Championships at the Nixon Aquatic Center on the campus of the University of Miami (Ohio).

Samantha Kephart

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Kephart (Sr., Santa Maria, Calif.) concluded her brilliant career with a third place finish in the 200 yard butterfly with a time of 2:02.98, her ninth career All-America finish at the NCAA Division III championships. The top eight finishers in a race earn All-American honors. Marika Ross of Middlebury won the event in 2:01.49. Kephart never finished worse than third place in the 200 butterfly during her four years at the NCAA Division III championships.

Turner (So., South Lake Tahoe, Calif.) finished sixth in the 1,650 freestyle with a time of 17:14.37. It is her third All-American performance of the meet after taking fourth in the 500 freestyle and fifth in the 200 free, and her fifth All-America finish in her two season's competing at the championships. Turner's time broke her own previous school record of 17:21.04 and also topped the Northwest Conference record of 17:15.80 set by Kristen Veal of Puget Sound in 1998. Kaitlyn Meirs of won the event in 16:52.90.

Natalie Turner

Turner and Kephart also swam on Whitworth's 400 yard freestyle relay that finished 12th in a new team record time of 4:33.06. Ashley Lecoq (Fr., Renton, Wash.) and Brittany Gresset (Jr., Seattle, Wash.) also were part of the relay. The previous school record of 3:33.97 was set at this season's Northwest Conference Championship meet.

Whitworth finished in tenth place in the team standings with 120.5 points. The Pirates' previous best finish was 14th place at last season's meet. Kenyon won its 22nd NCAA Division III women's championship with 566.5 points to finish well ahead of runner-up Amherst's 341 points.