The Wittenberg men's and women's swimming and diving teams both made history at last weekend's North Coast Athletic Conference championship meet, especially the Tiger women. Wittenberg placed third in the women's competition, the best finish for either the men or women since the university joined the NCAC in 1989 - in the process aligning itself with perennial national powerhouse programs Denison and Kenyon. The Tiger men improved one spot from 2005 with a fifth-place finish.
Head Coach Natalie Koukis was rewarded for her efforts with NCAC Women's Coach of the Year honors after the breakthrough third-place finish, which came on the heels of five straight fourth or fifth place finishes. She also guided a young Tiger men's squad to within a razor-thin margin of 42 points of fourth-place Wooster.
The Tiger women not only performed well as a team, but several individuals made waves as well. Leading the charge was senior Becca Searcy (Shelbyville, Ky./Shelby County), who assured herself of a fourth consecutive trip to the NCAA Division III Championship meet with an All-NCAC performance (the top three finishers in each event earn All-NCAC honors). Searcy, who has five honorable mention All-America awards in her career, became just the third female Wittenberg swimmer to reach the national meet all four years of her career when she placed second in the 1,650-yard freestyle in a time of 17:20.75. The time was good for an automatic berth in next month's NCAA Division III Championship meet in Minneapolis, Minn.
Searcy also earned a provisional qualifying time in the 500-yard freestyle, placing fourth in a time of 5:07.69. In addition, Searcy placed ninth in the 400-yard Individual Medley.
Searcy was also a part of two of the three Wittenberg relay teams that broke school records during the weekend. Searcy, senior Betany Yeakley (Wilmington, Ohio/Wilmington), sophomore Lindsay Smith (Mount Vernon, Ohio/Mount Vernon) and sophomore Kaitlin Clark (Wakeman, Ohio/Firelands) turned in an All-NCAC third-place finish in the 800-yard freestyle relay, touching the wall in 7:55.59 to break a five-year-old school record.
The 200-yard freestyle relay quartet of Yeakley, Smith, freshman Jenny Riehle (Enon, Ohio/Greenon) and junior Colleen Costigan (Chagrin Falls, Ohio/Kenston) established a new university standard of 1:39.53 with a fourth-place finish. Finally, the 400-yard freestyle relay of Searcy, Yeakley, Smith and Riehle captured fourth place with a school-record time of 3:37.37. Yeakley capped her weekend with a pair of NCAA Division III provisional qualifying times in individual events. In placing seventh in the 100-yard backstroke, Yeakley turned in a time of 59.90, good for provisional national qualification. She took fifth place in the 200-yard backstroke with a provisional time of 2:09.6. Now with provisional qualification for the third straight year, Yeakley will attempt to lower her times at the Kenyon Invitational on Saturday in hopes of securing a position in the national meet for the first time in her collegiate career.
Not to be outdone, sophomore Courtney Roth (Gurnee, Ill./Lake Forest) put the finishing touches on a breakout season with NCAC Diver of the year honors. Roth finished second in the 1-meter diving competition to earn All-NCAC honors for the first time in her career, and she followed that up with a fourth-place finish in the 3-meter event.
On the men's side, the Wittenberg highlight was turned in by an All-NCAC performance by junior Cody Nicely (Knoxville, Tenn./Bearden). The 2004 NCAC Diver of the Year, Nicely placed third in the 1-meter diving competition and sixth in the 3-meter event. The third-place finish in the 1-meter event was Nicely's fourth All-NCAC honor, and it came in most spectacular fashion as he shattered a 15-year-old school record with a score of 384.64.
Next: 2/18 @ Kenyon Invitational