Jon Drewsen
CANTON, Ohio — The Wittenberg swimming and diving teams got off to an outstanding start to the 2011 North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Championship meet. Through the first six events, the Tiger men stand third behind only national powers Denison and Kenyon, while the Tiger women are currently in fourth place.
On the nine-team men's side, the Tigers finished Day 1 of the annual event with 224 points, well back of national title contenders Denison (580) and Kenyon (426) but four points ahead of rival Wooster and 18 points ahead of Wabash. The Tiger women finished the opening day with 230 points, 52 points behind Allegheny for third place. Denison (609) and Kenyon (430) once again top the field on the women's side.
The highest individual finish in the pool for either Tiger team was turned in by sophomore Ward McNulty (Glencoe, Ill./New Trier), who placed ninth in the 50-yard freestyle. Her time of 24.65 was 11th in the preliminary round, but McNulty moved up two spots to win the B-final with a time of 24.59.
Sophomore Jane Tsivitse (Wyoming, Ohio/Wyoming) also reached the B-final in the 50 free, placing 15th with a time of 25.51. In the 200-yard Individual Medley, junior Keaton Hannon (Peachtree City, Ga./McIntosh) placed 13th, followed by junior Megan Tassone (Cincinnati, Ohio/Ursuline) in 15th. Finally, senior Megan Shubitowski (Columbus, Ohio/Watterson) contributed a fifth-place finish in the 1-meter diving event, followed by freshman Katherine Reed (Cincinnati, Ohio/Northwest) in 11th.
The women's 200 freestyle relay finished fourth, while the 400 medley relay provided the day's biggest highlight with a third-place finish, earning All-NCAC honors for the four swimmers involved. Junior Rachel Leeds (Bexley, Ohio/Bexley), freshman Molly Gustafson (West Hartford, Conn./Conard), Hannon and Tsivitse touched the wall in 3:58.74, bettering their preliminary round time by nearly 10 full seconds.
The top finish in the pool for the men's team came from freshman Jon Drewson (Fond du Lac, Wisc./Fond du Lac), who placed 11th in the 50 free, followed closely by senior Chris Culkin (Novi, Mich./Northville), who placed 12th in the 500 free. The Tigers' other top-16 individual finishes were turned in by sophomore Brendan Eggers (Rye, NY/Rye), who finished 13th in the 200 IM, and divers Gus Appenbrink (Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) and Sage Hazarika (Brooklyn, NY/City as School Brooklyn). Appenbrink, a junior, placed sixth, while Hazarika, a freshman, took 13th in the 3-meter event.