GRANVILLE, Ohio - The Wittenberg men's and women's swimming and diving teams both stood in sixth place after the first day of the 2014 North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) championship meet.
The host team, Denison, is leading the men's competition with 670 points, followed by Kenyon with 561, DePauw with 313.5, Wabash with 240, Oberlin with 214 and Wittenberg with 196. Ohio Wesleyan, Allegheny, Wooster and Hiram round out the 10-team field.
On the women's side, Kenyon leads with 575 points, followed closely by Denison with 535. DePauw stands third with 327, and then there is a logjam from fourth through seventh places as just 28 points separate Wooster, Oblerlin, Wittenberg and Allegheny. Ohio Wesleyan is eighth and Hiram round out the nine-team field.
The Tigers' best individual finish came from freshman diver Emily Allen (Camp Hill, Pa./Cedar Cliff), who finished fourth in the 3-meter diving event with 350.2 points. She wound up less than eight points out of All-NCAC honors, which are given to the top three finishers in each individual event.
Also on the women's side, the Tigers' 400-yard medley relay team of senior Sarah Wilson (Centennial, Colo./Arapahoe), senior Molly Gustafson (West Hartford, Conn./Conard), freshman Amy Schulz (Waterloo, Ill./Waterloo) and sophomore Dani Lacy (Louisville, Ky./Louisville Collegiate School) placed fourth, missing out on All-NCAC honors by a mere .36 of a second.
The other highlight was provided by Lacy in the 50-yard freestyle. She finished 12th in a time of 24.27, which broke a school record.
Sophomore Margaret White (Westfield, Ind./Westfield) also placed 12th in the 500-yard freestyle, while senior Claire Kozlowski (Dublin, Ohio/Jerome) took 14th in the 200-yard Individual Medley.
On the men's side, junior AJ Burt (Wyoming, Ohio/Wyoming) led the way in the 500-yard freestyle with a 16th-place finish. Sophomore Stephen Stuthers (Pittsburgh, Pa./Central Catholic) took 17th in the 200-yard Individual Medley, and the 400-yard medley relay of Stuthers, Burt, junior James Dumstorf (Louisville, Ky./St. Xavier) and junior Jared Crum (Galveston, Ind./Lewis Cass) touched the wall in fourth place.
Rounding things out for the men, junior Eric Roberts (Willits, Calif./Willits) checked in ninth in the 3-meter diving on Wednesday evening. Freshman Nathan Yoder (Westerville, Ohio/DeSales) finished 14th.