Wilmington, Ohio- The Wittenberg University men's and women's swimming & diving teams combined for a 2-2 record on Saturday afternoon in a double-dual meet versus Wilmington and Transylvania in southern Ohio. The men's team earned a 125-122 victory over host Wilmington and rolled past Transylvania by a finally tally of 138-82, while the women's team dropped a 130-120 decision against Wilmington and also suffered a 136-102 setback against Transylvania.
On the women's side, the Tigers opened the meet with the team of freshman Jessica Crowder, junior Annelise Gibson, junior Marita Banta-Long and junior Claire Bergefurd topping the field in the 200 medley relay with a time of 2:13.05. Banta-Long then went on to post three more individual event victories, starting with a winning time of 2:39.81 in the 200 butterfly. She then cruised to victory in the 200 back with a time of 2:35.90, before closing out the day with another victory in the 100 butterfly with a time of 1:13.30. The Tigers also posted second-place finishes in eight different individual events, led by senior Morgan Siefert finishing second overall in the 800 free (10:42.86) and 400 free (5:16.19). Gibson also finished second in both breaststroke events with a time of 1:24.63 in the 100 and 3:07.49, while freshman Sophia Spriggs was the runner-up in the 100 butterfly (1:17.00) and 200 butterfly (2:56.31). Finally, Bergefurd finished second overall in the 200 free in 2:26.86, while Crowder touched second in the 50 free in 30.18.
The men's team had a breakout performance in the pool on Saturday afternoon with seven total event victories, highlighted by the foursome of junior Bradley Barren, sophomore Trey Gregory, junior Nick Angeli and freshman Anthony Petruzzi closing out the meet with a winning time of 1:44.51 in the men's 200 free relay. Individually, Barren and Gregory were also double winners for the Tigers in the double-dual meet, with Barren sweeping both sprint freetstyle events with times of 25.30 in the 50 and 56.60 in the 100. Gregory capped off his day by winning both butterfly events, touching first in the 100 in 59.39 and topping the field in the 200 with a winning time of 2:15.96. Two additional men's swimmers logged individual event victories on the day, including freshman Benjamin Hongell in the 200 free (2:03.33) and sophomore Connor Flanagan in the 200 backstroke with a winning time of 2:27.95.
The Tigers will now take a week off before returning to the pool the following weekend for a pair of dual meets in northern Ohio. The Tigers will travel to Ohio Northern on Friday, November 16th, for a 6:00 p.m. dual meet, before wrapping up the weekend at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday with another double-dual meet, this time taking on conference rivals Oberlin and Wooster in Oberlin, Ohio.