2004 NCAC Championships Day 1 Wittenberg News and Notes
At the conclusion of the first day of the North Coast Athletic Conference Swimming and Diving Championships, the Wittenberg men's and women's teams both are in strong position. In the men's field, Wittenberg is in third place with 192 points, just behind Kenyon with 511 points and Denison with 384 points. On the women's side, Wittenberg is in fourth place with 215 points.
CANTON, Ohio - At the conclusion of the first day of the
North Coast Athletic Conference Swimming and Diving Championships,
the Wittenberg men's and women's teams both are in strong position.
In the men's field, Wittenberg is in third place with 192 points,
just behind Kenyon with 511 points and Denison with 384 points. On
the women's side, Wittenberg is in fourth place with 215 points.
Ahead of the women are Kenyon (488), Denison (406) and Wooster
(285), three of the top five teams in the nation a year
ago.
On the men's side, Steve Rader (Concord,
Ohio/Cleveland St. Ignatius) led the Tigers
with a second place finish in the 200-yard Individual Medley.
Rader's time of 1:53.54 earned him second place and an NCAA "B" cut
that will allow him to compete in the NCAA Championship in
March.
Jonathan Newcomer (Valencia, Pa./Mars
Area), Alex Berger (Findlay,
Ohio/Findlay) and Sean Wolf
(White Lake, Mich./Walled Lake Central) joined
Rader on the 400 medley relay. The tandem narrowly took third place
with a time of 3:32.70, when Wolf touched out the Wabash Little
Giants by 6 one-hundredths of a second. Berger, Rader and Wolf
teamed up with Scott Olmsted (Castle Rock,
Colo./Cherry Creek) to take another third place
in the 200 freestyle relay, 1:26.63.
Notable individual performances for the men included a
14th-place finish is the 50 free by Olmsted (22.46) and a
17th-place finish for Wolf in the same
event. Kyle Dunaway (Warren,
Ohio/Howland) had a personal best in the 200 IM
and finished 15th with a time of 1:58.58. Joining Dunaway in the
200 IM was Blake Troxel (Bluffton,
Ind./Norwell), who finished 17th with a time of
2:01.24. Matt Reiss (Beavercreek, Ohio/Dayton
Carroll) had a personal-best time in the 500
free (4:55.90) and finished 18th in that event.
For the women, Becca Searcy (Shelbyville,
Ky./Shelby County) was the team points leader
after she took fourth place in the 500 free with a 5:09.03.
Searcy's time was good enough to earn her an NCAA "B"
cut.
Betany Yeakley (Wilmington,
Ohio/Wilmington) earned a sixth-place finish in
the 200 IM with a time of 2:13.10. Yeakley also earned an NCAA "B"
cut by leading of the 400 medley relay with a time of
1:00.44.
Other notable swims of the evening included a 15th-place
finish by Amy Conner (Noblesville,
Ind./Noblesville) in the 200 IM, with a time of
2:16.96. Courtney Galliger (Eagan,
Minn./Eagan) posted a 16th-place finish in the
50 free in 25.52.Hillary Clark (Ann Arbor,
Mich./Pioneer) turned in a time of 25.91 in the
morning to earn her a place in the consolation hear at night. She
finished 22nd overall.
Yeakley, Galliger and Clark were joined by
senior Nicole Kinzeler (Centerville,
Ohio/Alter) in the 200 freestyle relay to bring
home a fourth-place finish for the Tigers with a time of 1:41.24.
In the 400 freestyle relay, Galliger, Connor and Yeakley were
joined by Jenny Mulligan (Cheyney, Pa./Delaware
Valley Friends)to bring home a second fourth-place
finish with a time of 4:09.10.
Competition will resume today at the C.T. Branin Natatorium
in Canton with preliminaries beginning at 10 a.m. and finals at
6:30 p.m.