ATLANTA--Disney's Magic Kingdom inspires awe and wonder in the land of make-believe, where anything can happen and dreams come true.

So when Kenyon College's women's swimming and diving team borrowed its motivational theme for the NCAA Division III Women's Swimming and Diving Championships from the Magic Kingdom, there was perhaps a bit of wishful thinking: that in the dreamland the good people never die; that the last two months have been a dream and when they wake up they'll see the radiant smile of teammate Molly Hatcher.

But this was reality at the national championships hosted by Emory University in Atlanta. There was no Molly Hatcher, at least not in body.

The Kenyon senior from Evanston, Illinois, was killed in a van accident January 13 as the team was driving back from a meet at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

The other 10 passengers survived, most with minor injuries. Some are in rehabilitation to regain full mobility. Some were too emotionally shaken to continue swimming this season.

As a result, the Kenyon Ladies, as they're nicknamed, came to the national meet with 14 competitors, fewer than anticipated and four shy of the maximum allowed.

Given the shortfall in numbers and the emotional upheaval of the accident, opposing teams may have sensed an opportunity to break Kenyon's awe-inspiring streak of 16 consecutive national championships, the longest in any women's sport in any NCAA division.

Instead, the Kenyon women delivered their 17th title, winning by more than 200 points over their nearest competitor, an even bigger margin of victory than the previous year.

"This is about the resiliency of the human spirit and one's ability to persevere in the face of adversity," said Kenyon coach Jim Steen. "We didn't come to the nationals with the goal of winning, but rather to be together for whatever was in store for us. Winning was merely a result of our ability to pull together in a difficult situation. Our women did that admirably."

An unknown adversity

Last December, the Kenyon women's team took second place out of 10 schools, including some Divisions I and II schools, at the Miami (Ohio) Invitational. The Ladies amassed nine NCAA automatic-qualifying performances and 40 provisional qualifying times, a staggering number for one meet. But the coaching staff missed the subsequent deadline to submit the proof-of-performance forms to the NCAA.

As a result, Kenyon's swimmers had to requalify for the nationals unshaved, not an easy feat, or shave-'n-taper, which would alter their best-laid plans to peak at the nationals. That was the subject of a team meeting in Florida during the team's annual winter training trip.

"We decided that this (situation with the qualifying times) was just the sort of adversity we needed and would overcome," Steen said. Of course, no one could have imagined the magnitude of the adversity they would face within a week.

On the way back from Florida, the team stopped at Chapel Hill for a meet. From there they returned to Ohio in a caravan of vans on a wintry cold night. In the last van, Hatcher was sleeping with her head on a teammate's shoulder. She had spent the ride chatting with others about their boyfriends or making plans to go shopping. Also in the same van was her younger sister and freshman teammate, Emily.

Suddenly, the van hit a patch of ice, veered out of control, flipped over and rolled several times. Molly Hatcher was pronounced dead at the scene at the age of 21.

Support from the swimming community was immediate and enormous.

The Kenyon pool area was awash in e-mails, letters, cards, notes and flowers. Fellow coaches rallied to Steen, notably his good friend Tim Welsh, head coach at the University of Notre Dame, which had two female swimmers killed in a 1992 bus accident.

"Coach Welsh wrote touching e-mails to say that he felt our pain and that there would be a better day," Steen said.

"What was also exceedingly touching and inspirational were the gestures on the part of our opponents to embrace us and help us in our time of grief," Steen said. "They did everything short of letting us win meets."

The University of Cincinnati's home meet against Kenyon was moved from a campus pool to the Keating Natatorium, considered a faster pool, to allow Kenyon a better chance of attaining NCAA qualifying times. After the meet, the Cincinnati team presented a single rose to each Kenyon swimmer.

When Kenyon competed at Oakland University, the latter offered to loan one of their breaststrokers because Kenyon's lone breaststroker was still recovering from the accident.

Days of reckoning

Steen told his team the only thing to do was to "remember and carry on."

To carry on with their lives in as normal a fashion as possible while remembering their beloved friend and teammate. Predictably, some found it harder to do than others.

One swimmer quit the team but showed up in Steen's office after the Cincinnati meet saying she couldn't stay away. She eventually made it to the nationals as a member of Kenyon's 200-yard freestyle relay that finished second.

"It was very difficult to get back in the pool," said senior diver Becky White. "It was a matter of putting one foot forward at a time. It kept getting easier as time went by."

White ended up winning the national championship on the one-meter diving board.

"Everyone understood that the world would keep on moving, but the question was how do we carry on?" Steen said. "Each person had to decide for themselves in the moment. If they could at that moment, they did. If they couldn't, they didn't. It was that simple. But we made the decision to be together."

The night of the accident, four swimmers spent the night holding hands while sleeping on the floor at Steen's house.

The next night, the team gathered to share thoughts and memories with each other.

"That was a turning point," White said. "We were able to laugh again, to remember who Molly was. It was enough to put a smile back on our face."

"Molly is always in our thoughts," said junior Andreana Prichard. "When I think of her, I remember that beautiful, radiant smile, and that helps me."

While the team carried on as best as possible, they also took advantage of the opportunities to remember their late team captain.

On Senior Day at the last home meet, the Hatcher family stood in for Molly. Her parents and six siblings took their place in line in sequence by age. Where Molly would have stood as the third oldest child, the family created an empty space to acknowledge her memory.

During the senior ceremony at the conference championships, Emily accepted the award on behalf of Molly. As Emily walked out, she grabbed the hands of her junior teammates who joined her in line in a public show of support.

As a tribute to Molly at the conference meet, Kenyon unveiled T-shirts with a saying that is a favorite of Steen's, one that he used at a memorial for Hatcher: "Angels Soar Because They Carry Themselves So Lightly."

The phrase on the T-shirt was printed in black ink except for the letters "m" and "h," which were printed in purple, the school colors, to signify the initials of Molly Hatcher.

"Molly has become our guardian angel and we feel she is watching over us," said Marisha Stawiski, first-year assistant coach and a former Kenyon all-American who won two individual titles last season.

The Kenyon family

In an attempt to get the focus back on the pool, Steen sent an e-mail to the other conference coaches with an update on the well-being of his team and in particular, those who were in the fateful van. He asked the coaches to conduct business as usual at the conference meet without the need to inquire about or acknowledge Kenyon's grief.

At the nationals, the team declined the opportunity to publicly acknowledge Hatcher at the banquet or during the senior walk.

"While we continue to be appreciative of the support from the outside, it's our grief and sadness," Steen said. "This is not why we came together this week. We didn't feel the need to revisit the tragedy with a larger group. You might say this is a family matter for the Kenyon family."

"The whole team was motivated to try to win one for Molly," said junior Erica Carroll, who was among the occupants in the fateful van. "We had to keep going to keep her alive in us." Carroll ended up winning titles in the 100-yard butterfly and 100-yard backstroke, along with participating in two winning relays.

"At the nationals, you try to block out everything else and focus on your swimming," said Stawiski. "But as soon as the last swimmer touched the wall in the last event, the emotions came out."

When the meet announcer called out Kenyon to accept the first-place trophy, the Ladies were nowhere to be seen. They were gathered behind a partition for private thoughts.

Slowly they emerged, with tears streaming down the faces of several. As they took the long walk from the opposite end of the pool to the awards stand, their fellow competitors and the crowd, including a group of about 45 Kenyon swimming alumnae, responded with a roaring round of applause.

After the presentation, the squad came down from the awards stand, all too aware that there still was no Molly. The one thing that had kept them focused for two months, the national title, was now over. All they had left in the end was each other. So they did the only thing that made sense. They embraced in a group hug. They were together.

John Arenberg is the sports information director at Emory University.