CANTON, Ohio – For the second straight day, the Wittenberg men's and women's swimming and diving teams put together a record-breaking performance at the 2013 North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Championship meet.
Despite the record-breaking individual performances, the Tigers did give up some ground in both the men's and women's team standings after the second of three days at the conference meet. Wittenberg fell from fourth to sixth on the men's side, while the Tiger women are now fifth after finishing Day 1 in third place.
Denison leads the women's standings, followed closely by Kenyon. DePauw is a distant third, 104.5 points ahead of Wooster and 126 points clear of the Tigers. On the men's side, Denison and Kenyon are again locked in a close duel, followed by DePauw, Wabash, Wooster and Wittenberg. The Tigers are a mere 14.5 point behind Wooster, although they also lead Allegheny and Oberlin by less than 60 points apiece heading into the final day of competition.
The first highlight of the day was provided by the members of the women's 200-yard medley relay, who broke the school record in the prelims and then topped themselves in the finals race a few hours later. Junior Sarah Wilson (Centennial, Colo./Arapahoe), junior Molly Gustafson (West Hartford, Conn./Conard), senior Jane Tsivitse (Wyoming, Ohio/Wyoming) and senior Ward McNulty (Glencoe, Ill./New Trier) touched the wall in an NCAA B Cut time of 1:46.70, good for third place and All-NCAC honors as well.
Senior Claire Shannon (Cincinnati, Ohio/Turpin) was next up with a strong finish in the 400-yard Individual Medley, posting a time of 4:40.78 to win the B final and earn ninth-place points. In the same event, sophomore A.J. Burt (Wyoming, Ohio/Wyoming) turned in a tremendous performance in the prelims, breaking the school record with a time of 4:08.46 en route to an eighth-place finish in the final. He added 10th place in the 100-yard breaststroke later in the evening.
Burt capped his day with a school-record performance in the 200-yard medley relay. He was joined by freshman Stephen Stuthers (Pittsburgh, Pa./Central Catholic), sophomore James Dumstorf (Louisville, Ky./St. Xavier) and senior J.B. Easley (Cincinnati, Ohio/Seven Hills) to finish sixth in a record-breaking time of 1:35.02.
In the women's 100-yard breaststroke, Gustafson finished third in the prelims with an NCAA B Cut time of 1:05.68, while freshman Madeline Kraft (Cape Elizabeth, Maine/Cape Elizabeth) earned ninth place in the final standings with a victory in the B final race. Also of note, Wilson earned a provisional qualifying standard with a mark of 0:58.31 in the prelims of the 100-yard backstroke en route to an 11th-place finish.
Another school record was toppled in the women's 800-yard freestyle relay as Wittenberg posted a fourth-place time of 7:49.90. Shannon, Lacy and White were joined by junior Courtney Carani (Lake Bluff, Ill./Lake Forest) on the relay.