Senior Night A Double Success For Tigers

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio – The Wittenberg men's and women's swimming & diving teams sure know how to send out their seniors, even if it early in the season.

The Tigers held Senior Day festivities today during a double dual meet with Wilmington and Transylvania in which both the men and women pulled off sweeps of their opponents in the HPER Center Natatorium.

The men counted wins of 164-115 over Wilmington and 192-85 over Transylvania, while the women were winners by scores of 193-74 versus Wilmington and 143.5-121.5 against Transylvania.

The women celebrated the careers of five Tigers, including Courtney Carani (Lake Bluff, Ill./Lake Forest), Molly Gustafson (West Hartford, Conn./Conard), Claire Kozlowski (Dublin, Ohio/Jerome), Brooke Strumbel (North Royalton, Ohio/Hawken), and Sarah Wilson (Centennial, Colo./Arapahoe).

The men honored four Tigers, including Taylor Burmeister (Blue Island, Ill./Dwight Eisenhower), Will London (Cincinnati, Ohio/St. Xavier), Nick Rothwall (Silverdale, Wash./Central Kitsap) and Andrew Walsh (Woodville, Ohio/Oak Harbor).

Wilson led things off for the Tigers with the opening leg of the winning 200-yard medley relay. Wilson was joined on the relay team by sophomore Madeline Kraft (Cape Elizabeth, Maine/Cape Elizabeth), freshman Amy Schulz (Waterloo, Ill./Waterloo) and sophomore Dani Lacy (Louisville, Ky./Louisville Collegiate School).

Sophomore Margaret White (Westfield, Ind./Westfield) followed with a victory in the 1000-yard freestyle, and Schulz grabbed her second win of the night with first place in the 200-yard freestyle, while Kraft won the 100-yard breaststroke on a time of 1:10.35.

Freshman Emily Allen (Camp Hill, Pa./Cedar Cliff) again won both diving events, though the three-meter edition was an exhibition competition. Lacy kept the pace up for Wittenberg with a 54.65 win in the 100-yard freestyle, and Kraft raced ahead of her competitors in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:34.61. White won her second event of the night with a 5:29.96 showing in the 500-yard freestyle.

On the men's side, sophomore Steve Stuthers (Pittsburgh, Pa./Central Catholic), junior James Dumstorf (Louisville, Ky./St. Xavier), freshman Jacob Griffith (Pickerington, Ohio/North) and  junior Jared Crum (Galveston, Ind./Lewis Cass) kicked things off with a 1:39.59 win in the 200-yard medley relay. London followed with a 1:53.60 first-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle.

London kept the heat on the competition with a 1:51.71 victory in the 200-yard freestyle before  Dumstorf won the 100-yard breaststroke on a time of 1:02.09. Dumstorf would go on to add a first-place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke, as well as the 200-yard individual medley. Griffith added a victory in the 100- and 200-yard butterfly events and Crum dropped in a win in the 50-yard freestyle on a time of 22.82.

Junior Eric Roberts (Willits, Calif./Willits) dove to a score of 270.25 from the one-meter board, good for first place, but gave way to teammate sophomore Kevin Duhl (Westerville, Ohio/North) on the three-meter board thanks to his 258.15 score.

The Tigers continue home dual-meet competition with a 6 p.m. affair hosting Ohio Northern on Friday, Nov. 15, and hit the road the next day for a 3 p.m. meet at Oberlin College on Saturday, Nov. 16.

John Strawn '07