Wittenberg Swimming And Track Standouts Earn NCAA Division III Bids

Springfield, Ohio — The winter sports season has concluded for all of Wittenberg University's teams, but that doesn't mean competition is done for all of the individual student-athletes. Men's track and field standout Josh Colbert, class of 2013 from Urbana, Ohio, and women's swimming and diving standout Adeline Brym, class of 2010 from Mansfield, Ohio, have earned invitations to compete in NCAA Division III Championship meets.

Josh Colbert

Colbert was the surprise of the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) championship meet at Denison March 5-6, taking second place in the 55-meter dash before exploding for a mark of 23-00.75 in the long jump. Colbert's winning jump came on his final attempt of the day and blew past his nearest competitor by more than eight inches.

Colbert, who also earned a varsity letter as a back-up linebacker on Wittenberg's nationally ranked football team in 2009, becomes the first Tiger track and field student-athlete to reach the NCAA Division III Championship meet since four student-athletes (two men and two women) competed in the 2004 outdoor competition. Also that year, Skip Ivery, class of 2004, earned his second straight All-America award with a fourth-place finish in the indoor championship meet.

Colbert's mark ranks No. 12 in the nation in 2010. He will shoot for a national championship at 3:30 p.m. Friday, March 12, at DePauw University's James A. Hollensteiner Track in Greencastle, Ind.

Adeline Brym

Brym is making her second straight NCAA Division III appearance. She will return to Minneapolis, Minn., where she earned All-America honors with an eighth-place finish in the 200-yard backstroke on the final day of the 2009 national championship meet.

Brym will compete in the 50-yard freestyle, the 100-yard backstroke and the 200-yard backstroke at the meet, which is scheduled for Wednesday-Saturday, March 17-20. The event is co-hosted in 2010 by Beloit College and the College of Wooster at the University of Minnesota's University Aquatic Center.

Ranked 12th in the 200-yard backstroke entering the competition, Brym is bidding to become Wittenberg's seventh women's swimmer with more than one All-America award in her collegiate career. Brym was one of five individual Wittenberg swimmers and divers (men and women) provisionally qualified for the national championship meet (in addition to the four members of the women's 400-yard medley relay).

Written by: Ryan Maurer
Photos by: Erin Pence

012-10