DANVILLE, Ky. — Quality depth was a key for the Wittenberg swimming and diving teams as the Tiger women improved to 9-1 in dual meets with a 114-104 win at Centre, while the Tiger men earned a rare tie with the Colonels, 111.5-111.5.
Wittenberg has one more dual meet remaining in the 2011-12 season — at nationally ranked Kenyon on Saturday, Jan. 28 — before the annual North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) championship meet, scheduled for Feb. 16-18 in Canton, Ohio.
The men actually earned more race victories against Centre, but the Colonels came up with a clutch performance in the final race, 400-yard freestyle relay, to pull even. Prior to that, the Tigers had piled up wins in eight individual events and a first-place finish in the meet-opening 200-yard medley relay.
Touching the wall first for the Tigers were freshman Ed Young (Shaker Heights, Ohio/University School) in the 1000-yard freestyle, freshman AJ Burt (Wyoming, Ohio/Wyoming) in the 200-yard freestyle and the 500-yard freestyle, and freshman James Dumstorf (Louisville, Ky./St. Xavier) in the 400-yard Individual Medley, 100-yard butterfly and the 100-yard breaststroke, in addition to a win by senior Gus Appenbrink (Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) in the 1-meter diving.
For the women, the ninth dual meet win of the season moved the 2011-12 squad into a tie for second place in program history, behind only the 1983-84 team that finished 10-4. Wittenberg has finished with nine wins in three previous seasons, most recently in 2005-06.
After the quartet of sophomore Sarah Wilson (Centennial, Colo./Arapahoe), sophomore Molly Gustafson (West Hartford, Conn./Conard), senior Keaton Hannon (Peachtree City, Ga./MacIntosh) and junior Jane Tsivitse (Wyoming, Ohio/Wyoming) won the 200-yard medley relay to open the meet, the Tigers added four individual victories to go along with a host of second- and third-place finishes to build the team's final point total.
Touching the wall first were Hannon in the 100-yard butterfly, Tsivitse in the 100-yard freestyle and Gustafson in the 100-yard breaststroke. Junior Katie Reed (Cincinnati, Ohio/Northwest) added a first-place finish in the 1-meter diving.