CANTON, Ohio — The Wittenberg Tigers put the finishing touches on the 2007-08 regular season with a mixed bag of final results from the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) championships at C.T. Branin Natatorium. The Tiger men went out on a high note with a fourth-place finish, their best since 2001, while the Tiger women capped things with a sixth-place finish.
The men's finish was punctuated by Coach of the Year honors for fourth-year Head Coach Natalie Koukis. She also earned Women's Coach of the Year honors in 2006 after leading the Tigers to a program-best third-place finish.
After recording six NCAA B Cuts and two school records the first two days of the meet, the Tigers were unable to meet any national qualifying standards on Saturday, but there were plenty of strong individual performances. The best of them was turned in by freshman Megan Shubitowski (Columbus, Ohio/Watterson), who claimed All-NCAC honors with a third-place finish in the 1-meter diving event. That came two days after Shubitowski earned seventh in the 3-meter diving.
Megan Shubitowski
Also on the women's side, senior Kaitlin Clark (Wakeman, Ohio/Firelands) made her final individual collegiate swim a good one as she placed seventh in the 1650-yard freestyle with a time of 18:23.88. Also, sophomore Katie Johnson (Springfield, Ohio/North) added a ninth-place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:34.73.
For the men, it was a total team effort that allowed the Tigers to stack up one of the biggest point totals in school history. With 768 points, Wittenberg just barely held off arch-rival Wooster in the battle for fourth place. The Tigers were beaten by three of the top 10 teams in the nation in Kenyon, Denison and Wabash, all of which topped 1,000 points overall.
Individually, sophomore Taylor Smith (Mansfield, Ohio/Senior) wrapped up his tremendous conference meet with an eighth-place finish in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 1:59.26. He was followed closely in the final standings by freshman Matt Higbee (Columbus, Ohio/Upper Arlington), who won the consolation heat to finish ninth with a personal-best time of 1:56.66. He shaved three seconds off his time in the preliminaries.
Rounding things out, senior Brian Harris (Harrisonburg, Va./Harrisonburg) added a 10th in the 100-yard freestyle with a lifetime-best time of 47.13 in his final individual collegiate race.