NCAC Women's Diver of the Year Courtney Roth (Photo courtesy Wabash College)
CANTON, Ohio - It wasn't a weekend filled with national qualifying times, but it was a tremendous performance nonetheless as the Wittenberg Tigers posted a pair of outstanding team finishes in the 2007 North Coast Athletic Conference Swimming and Diving Championships.
The Tiger women made a statement with a second consecutive third-place finish in the team standings. A year after finally reaching that plateau - behind only national powerhouses Kenyon and Denison - with a veteran team, the Tigers took third again with a relatively young squad. Wittenberg finished with 847.5 points, a slim 47.5 ahead of Allegheny.
The Tiger men matched their finish of a year ago as well, although it was for fifth place. For the second straight year, Wittenberg got the short end of a pitched battle for fourth place behind Kenyon, Denison and Wabash - three of the top 10 ranked teams in the nation. Wooster finished fourth with 808 points, just 21.5 ahead of the Tigers.
Individually, the meet highlight was turned in by junior Courtney Roth (Gurnee, Ill./Lake Forest) for a second straight day. A year after capturing NCAC Diver of the Year honors and 24 hours after topping the field in the 1-meter diving event, Roth was at it again, this time lapping the field to capture first place in the 3-meter diving event. That sewed up a second straight NCAC Diver of the Year award.
For the second time in three days, junior Lindsay Smith (Mount Vernon, Ohio/Mount Vernon) broke a school record. After topping her own mark in the 50-yard freestyle on Thursday, Smith came back with a school record mark of 53.64 in the 100 free on Saturday, topping a 17-year-old record. While she finished eighth in the event, Smith's mark was just short of an NCAA B Cut.
Smith was also part of the school record 800-meter freestyle relay on Friday, so it was only fitting that she anchored the 400 free relay to a school record on Saturday. The quartet of freshman Adeline Brym (Mansfield, Ohio/Lexington), freshman Kristin Elber (Brunswick, Ohio/Brunswick), freshman Janna House (St. Thomas, Ontario/Central Elgin Collegiate Institute) and Smith touched the wall in 3:36.88, eclipsing a record set last year and coming within one second of an NCAA B Cut.
Also of note on the women's side were top-eight finishes in the 1650 free by junior Kaitlin Clark (Wakeman, Ohio/Firelands) and senior Katie Spittler (Carlisle, Ky./Lexington Catholic), who finished sixth and eighth respectively to lead a strong Wittenberg contingent in the event.
On the men's side, the highlight was unquestionably the meet-ending 400 free relay as the Tigers turned in a third-place finish to earn All-NCAC honors for junior Ryan Hamilton (Mount Vernon, Ohio/Charisland Academy), freshman Neil Anderson (Lakewood, Ohio/Lakewood), senior Sean Wolf (White Lake, Mich./Walled Lake Central) and junior Brian Harris (Harrisonburg, Va./Harrisonburg). With a time of 3:11.49, the relay finished just off both a school record and an NCAA B Cut.