Adeline Brym
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - Wittenberg Tiger swimming standout Adeline Brym (Mansfield, Ohio/Lexington) took her first strokes on the national scene and made the most of the them with a pair of 25th-place finishes before an eighth-place result in the 200-yard backstroke on the final day of the 2009 NCAA Division III National Championship meet, hosted by Macalester College.
Brym was seeded ninth in the event coming in but turned in a school record 2:02.62 in the prelims to take seventh place and assure herself of the first All-America honors of her collegiate career. In her final race of the 2008-09 season, Brym touched the wall eighth in a time of 2:03.96.
Brym started the week off with a strong 25th-place finish in the 500 yard freestyle preliminaries on the meet's opening day. In her 500, Brym touched the wall in a time of 5:01.35, bettering her seed time by nearly a full second, establishing a new lifetime-best time and breaking a school record.
After a day of rest on Thursday, Brym was back in action on Friday with a 25th-place finish in the 100 backstroke. She touched the wall in 58.12, .12 over her seed time and .60 away from honorable mention All-America honors.
Her performance made her the first Tiger woman to compete at the NCAA Division III National Championships since 2006, when Becca Searcy earned All-America honors in the 500 and 1650 freestyle events. Ironically, Searcy's efforts also came in the Twin Cities.