Swimmers Open Season with Pair of Non-Conference Meets

SPRINGFIELD - In a pair of non-conference match-ups with Carnegie-Mellon University and Transylvania University, the Wittenberg University Men's and Women's Swimming teams opened their seasons with a flurry of new talent and high expectations. The women took victories over both Carnegie-Mellon and Transylvania, while the men split the competition with a win over Transylvania and a loss to Carnegie-Mellon. 

The women opened the meet with a first-place finish in the 200-yard medley relay over both Transylvania and Carnegie-Mellon. The relay was comprised of Melanie Edsall, Paula Hauser, Melissa Beck and Allison Dingus. 

Junior Rachel Juergens took first place in the 1000 freestyle and the 500 freestyle. Senior Allison Dingus won first place in the 100 freestyle and 200 Individual Medley. Melissa Beck and Betsy Godin took first and second place in the 100 and 200 butterfly events. 

Freshman Nicole Kinzeler took first place in both the 100 and 200 backstroke events, while senior Melanie Edsall brought in the red ribbon in each of the backstroke events. In addition,freshman Courtney Galliger captured first place in the 50 freestyle over Carnegie Mellon and Transylvania and first place over Transylvania in the 100 freestyle. 

Finishing the meet was the quartet of Beck, Galliger, Juergens and Courtney Smith in the 400 freestyle relay with a first place finish. 

While the men were unable to pull out any individual wins over nationally ranked Carnegie Mellon, they did capture numerous first and second place finishes over Transylvania. 

Aaron Edsall turned in a pair of first-place finishes in the 100 and 200 backstroke events over Transylvania. Freshman Brandon Morris took first over Transylvania in the 1,000 and 500 freestyle events, while Jason Hill came in second in the same events.

Freshman Steve Rader cruised a pair of first place finishes in the 200 and 100 freestyle, while freshman Alex Berger was able to score a first place finishes in the 100 and 200 breaststrokes. 

The Tigers swept Transylvania in both the 200 medley relay and 400 freestyle relay. Those teams were comprised of Aaron Edsall, Jeremy Lazarus, Steve Rader, Joshua Schnacke, and Bob Rafferty respectively.

Amid the excitement in the pool, a large number of spectators filled the Wittenberg Natatorium. "It was really fun and exciting to have such a large turnout for our first meet," said Allison Dingus. "It is nice knowing we have a lot of support from both students and parents." 

Bringing in their largest recruiting class in years, both the men's and women's teams are hoping to be very competitive this year within the North Coast Athletic Conference, as well as the NCAA. While only sending one individual, Aaron Edsall, to NCAA championships last year, the additional talents of the class of 2004 figure to strengthen the Tigers for what will hopefully be an exciting season. 

Both teams finished last season with winning records of 7-5. This year, both teams are aiming not only to improve on their dual meet record, but also their fifth-place conference finishes. 

Coach Bob Rueppel told his team, "Each meet is just one piece of the puzzle that will help us perform our best at conference." The rest of this semester will be a mix of conference and non-conference opponents. The Tigers will swim a total of nine meets in the fall semester before heading into spring semester schedule that includes four more meets.

Next weekend the Tigers will travel to an all-conference relay invitational hosted at Kenyon College.