SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — The Wittenberg men's and women's swimming & diving teams kicked off the 2010-11 dual meet slate with a convincing pair of victories. The men took home a 139-80 victory while the women were 124-96 winners. The teams combined to win 17 of 26 events in the meet.
The night started with a Tiger win in the women's 200-yard medley relay, where freshman Sarah Wilson (Centennial, Colo./Arapahoe), freshman Molly Gustafson (West Hartford, Conn./Conard), sophomore Jane Tsivitse (Wyoming, Ohio/Wyoming) and sophomore Ward McNulty (Glencoe, Ill./New Trier) finished in a time of 1:55.91.
Junior Victoria Parker (Columbus, Ind./North) followed up with first-place time of 11:33.00 in the 1,000-yard freestyle, before freshman Courtney Carani (Lake Bluff, Ill./Lake Forest) turned in a 2:01.47 finish for first in the 200-yard freestyle.
Junior Megan Tassone (Cincinnati, Ohio/Ursuline) won the 400-yard individual medley with a time of 4:57.58. Senior Megan Shubitowski (Columbus, Ohio/Watterson) next won the 1-meter diving competition with a score of 188.60. Later in the meet, sophomore teammate Kate Reed (Cincinnati, Ohio/Northwest) would take the 3-meter event with a score of 146.60.
Carani won her second event of the night later in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:22.08, and Tassone finished up the women's wins with a first-place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke in 2:32.55.
The men started the night off with a win in the 200-yard medley relay on the strength of a 1:42.60 finish thanks to junior Ted Hutchinson (Sudbury, Mass./Lincoln-Sudbury Regional), senior Phil Bambach (Dublin, Ohio/Jerome), freshman Jack Ruble (Woodridge, Ill./Naperville) and freshman Jon Drewsen (Fond du Lac, Wisc./Fond du Lac).
Freshman Blake Bosworth (Grandville, Mich./Grandville) took first in the 1,000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:20.69 to continue the winning for the men, before senior Chris Culkin (Novi, Mich./Northville) finished at the front of the field in the 200-yard freestyle in 1:48.50.
Drewsen grabbed win No. 2 in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 22.49, leading to a 225.20-point first-place set of dives from junior Gus Appenbrink (Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley). He followed that with a win in the 3-meter event on a score of 214.80.
Ruble won again in the 200-yard butterfly in 2:04.93, before Hutchinson added a win in the 200-yard backstroke on a time of 2:03.61.
The men finished the meet off with a first-place finish for the 200-yard freestyle relay team of sophomore Andrew Koukis (Delaware, Ohio/Hayes), senior Conor O'Rourke (Mendham, N.J./Canterbury School), freshman Andres Masvidal (Miami, Fla./Christopher Columbus) and senior Parker Browning (Cincinnati, Ohio/Turpin).
The teams get back in the water tomorrow, Sunday, Oct. 30, with another dual meet, this time against the College of Wooster. The swimming competition will take place at Wooster High School in Wooster, Ohio, beginning at 11:30 a.m., while the diving will commence at the College of Wooster's Timken Natatorium at Noon.