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.