CANTON, Ohio — For the second straight day, the Wittenberg men's and women's swimming and diving teams performed well at the 2012 North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) championship meet, turning in multiple school record times, including several that earned provisional NCAA qualifying standards.
The Tiger women started the day in third place, but only two points over DePauw. Wittenberg put together a tremendous performance on the second day of the competition to expand its lead to seven over DePauw, but both teams were overtaken by Wooster. Denison and Kenyon are in their customary positions atop the standings, followed by Wooster, Wittenberg and DePauw in a battle for third place. The Tigers trail the Scots by 64 points heading into the final day.
On the men's side, Denison again leads Kenyon, with DePauw comfortably in third. Wittenberg is a deceiving eighth after the second day, just 17 points behind Wooster and 32 behind Oberlin. The Tigers lost the chance to advance two positions (50 points) in the standings when the 200-yard medley relay was disqualified.
The women kicked off their day with a tremendous performance in the 200-yard medley relay, which placed second in the prelims and followed that with a school record performance in the final a few hours later. The quartet of sophomore Sarah Wilson (Centennial, Colo./Arapahoe), sophomore Molly Gustafson (West Hartford, Conn./Conard), senior Keaton Hannon (Peachtree City, Ga./McIntosh) and junior Ward McNulty (Glencoe, Ill./New Trier) earned an NCAA B Cut in the process.
Hannon followed that up with a victory in the B final of the 400-yard Individual Medley, putting her in ninth place. Her time was good for an NCAA B Cut and allowed her to re-claim her own school record that had been broken during the prelims by junior Jane Tsivitse (Wyoming, Ohio/Wyoming), who also posted an NCAA B Cut time.
Shortly afterward, the Tigers picked up two more NCAA B Cuts as Gustafson touched the wall in fifth place in the 100-yard breaststroke and senior Megan Tassone (Cincinnati, Ohio/Ursuline) finished sixth. Tassone's time in the prelim was good for the provisional qualifying standard.
Wilson was the team's other top-eight finisher. She placed seventh in the 100-yard backstroke.
The men were led by freshman AJ Burt (Wyoming, Ohio/Wyoming), who broke his own school record en route to a 10th-place finish in the 400-yard Individual Medley and then finished ninth in the 100-yard breaststroke, missing an NCAA B Cut by one-half of a second.
The top finish for a second straight session was supplied by senior Gus Appenbrink (Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley), who placed seventh in the 1-meter diving competition. His score of 414.35 in the prelims was good for a school record.
Finally, the men picked up a fifth-place finish in the 800-yard freestyle relay quartet of senior Zach Stewart (Vincennes, Ind./Lincoln), freshman Ed Young (Shaker Heights, Ohio/University School), senior Matt Parker (Delaware, Ohio/Hayes) and junior JB Easley (Cincinnati, Ohio/Seven Hills).