Men Finish Fifth At NCAC Championship Meet

The Wittenberg men's and women's swimming and diving teams weren't able to slay the dragons of the North Coast Athletic Conference at last week's championship meet.

February 18, 2003
Results

Alex Berger

The Wittenberg men's and women's swimming and diving teams weren't able to slay the dragons of the North Coast Athletic Conference at last week's championship meet. But the Tigers still turned in an outstanding performance in finishing fifth in the men's competition and fourth in the women's.

Head Coach Leslie Ramsey was rewarded for her efforts with an NCAC Coach of the Year award in the women's division.

While the Tiger men had a lower team finish, they had more All-NCAC finishes. Wittenberg, which actually finished ahead of Wooster and Wabash in the swimming events but lost too many points in the diving competition, placed five athletes on the all-conference rolls (top three in any event). The leader, as expected, was junior Steve Rader (Concord, Ohio/Cleveland St. Ignatius), who finished second in the 200-yard Individual Medley. The conference champion in the event a year ago because the eventual national champion from Kenyon chose to swim other events, Rader actually finished with a better time (1:54.11) in 2003 and made an NCAA B cut. Ramsey says his time is almost certain to stand up and qualify Rader for the national meet next month in Atlanta, Ga.

Three men's relays took top-three finishes, accounting for the other four individuals who made all-conference. In the 200 freestyle relay, the quartet of Rader, junior Scott Olmsted (Castle Rock, Colo./Cherry Creek), junior Alex Berger (Findlay, Ohio/Findlay) and junior Matt Werbach (Painesville, Ohio/Hawken) finished third in a time of 1:27.10. In the 400 medley relay, Rader, Berger, Werbach and junior Jonathan Newcomer (Valencia, Pa./Mars Area) finished third in a time of 3:35.00. And rounding things out, the 200 medley relay foursome of Werbach, Berger, Rader and Olmsted claimed third-place finish in a time of 1:36.40.

Considering that the NCAC is the best and deepest swimming conference in NCAA Division III, top eight finishes are very strong. Rader turned in a fifth place finish in the 100 butterfly in a time of 51.00 and a fourth in the 200 fly with an NCAA B cut time of 1:53.19. Berger made the first NCAA B cut of his career with a time of 59.04 in the 100 breaststroke, which was good for sixth place. Berger also finished eighth in the 200 breast with a time of 2:10.63. And junior diver Colin Donegan (Darien, Conn./Darien) finished eighth in the diving competition.

On the women's side, freshman Rebecca Searcy (Shelbyville, Ky./Shelby County Bloomington) was again a great story, but so were several of her classmates. Searcy, already with three NCAA B cuts to her credit, improved her times in the 500 free, 1650 free and 400 IM and is now a near lock to compete in the national meet next month. She finished fifth in the 500 free with a time of 5:07.37, fourth in the 1650 free in 17:39.54 and third in the 400 IM in 4:36.63. The latter time was a school record and earned Searcy her first All-NCAC honor.

Freshman Betany Yeakley (Wilmington, Ohio/Wilmington) finished eighth in the 200 IM in 2:13.57, sixth in the 100 backstroke in an NCAA B cut time of 1:00.39 and fourth in the 200 back with an NCAA B cut time of 2:10.34. In addition, freshman Amy Conner (Noblesville, Ind./Noblesville) provided some strong team points with a sixth-place finish in the 200 breast in a time of 2:29.19. That time was just a fraction of a second off the NCAA B cutoff.

Rounding things out for the Tiger women were freshman Leslie Banas (Huntington Woods, Mich./Mercy) with a seventh-place finish in the 1650 free with a personal-best time of 18:13.00 and sophomore Catherine Gray (Ft. Thomas, Ky./Highlands), who was the second women's competitor to claim All-NCAC honors with a third-place finish in the three-meter diving.

Several Tiger swimmers, including Berger, Conner and Yeakley, are considering swimming one final regular season meet this weekend at Case Western Reserve. Those three have times that tentatively qualify for the national meet, and improving on those marks could make the difference.

Next: 2/22 at Case Western