CANTON, Ohio — The Wittenberg men's and women's swimming and diving teams got excellent performances from a host of student-athletes in a wide range of events on Day 1 of the 2010 North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) championships, hosted by Allegheny College.
The day couldn't have started better as the women's 200-yard freestyle relay took second in the preliminary heat and followed that up with a school record and NCAA B cut time of 1:37.64 in the evening's final. The quartet of freshman Ward McNulty (Glencoe, Ill./New Trier), sophomores Cecilia Wille (Knoxville, Tenn./Farragut) and Sinjin McNicholl (Indianapolis, Ind./Ben Davis) and senior Adeline Brym (Mansfield, Ohio/Lexington) earned All-NCAC honors with their third-place finish, just one second behind second-place Kenyon. The time broke the record of 1:38.84 set last year by Wille, McNicholl, senior Janna House (St. Thomas, Ontario/Central Elgin Collegiate Institute) and Kristin Elber.
Brym, an All-American a year ago in the 200-yard backstroke, added an individual B cut with an fine performance in the ridiculously deep 500-yard freestyle event. She placed 12th in the event with a time of 5:07.75, but that time was good for a B cut, one of 10 such times recorded in the race. That was in addition to three A cut times. Amazingly, Kenyon swimmers had seven of those qualifying times and Denison had the other five.
On the men's side, the highlight was provided by senior Taylor Smith (Mansfield, Ohio/Senior). Swimming the anchor leg of the 200-yard freestyle relay, Smith posted a scorching time of 21.17, good for an NCAA B cut in the 50-yard freestyle. Ironically, Smith's time in the actual 50-yard freestyle event was 21.78 in the prelim and 22.02 in the final, which put him 15th.
Finally, Wittenberg's divers provided the teams with a lot of points on the opening day, led by junior Megan Shubitowski (Columbus, Ohio/Watterson) and her second-place finish in the 3-meter event. It was her second straight year with All-NCAC honors as she accumulated 336.80 points. On the men's side, Tigers placed fifth, sixth and seventh, led by senior Matt Erenpreiss (Columbus, Ohio/Centennial) with 414.00 points. He finished just 4.20 points out of second place in a tremendously tight competition.
As a team, Wittenberg's women stand third with 271 points after Day 1, well back of Denison and Kenyon for the top two spots, but 36 points ahead of Wooster in what is expected to be a pitched battle throughout the weekend. Denison and Kenyon are also leading the men's competition, followed by Wittenberg with 242 points, 15 points ahead of Allegheny and 20 points up on Wooster.