and the Men Finish Third; Plenty of Awards
BEREA, OHIO — The Baldwin-Wallace College women's swimming and diving won the 2005 Ohio Athletic Conference title at the OAC Championship Meet at John Carroll University in University Heights, Ohio (Saturday, February 12, 2005).
The Yellow Jacket women scored 270 points to outdistance second place and defending champion JCU by 38 points. The B-W men scored 168 points, 94 less than men's team champion Ohio Northern University.
The title for the Yellow Jacket women ends an outstanding year. The women had a perfect 4-0 OAC regular season dual meet record for the second straight year. The OAC Championships title is B-W's second in the past four years and mark the only two OAC Titles in swimming in school history.
The Yellow Jacket women's team also garnered a pair of awards. Sixth-year Head Coach Mike Gallagher was named as the OAC Women's Coach of the Year and sophomore diver Julie Stancliff (Erie, Pa./ McDowell) was tabbed as the OAC Women's Diver of the Year for the second straight year.
Stancliff and sophomore butterfly specialist Sara Gombash (Perrysburg/ Toledo Notre Dame) highlighted the third day of competition (Feb. 12). Stancliff won the 3-meter title with 390.90 points to give her four OAC diving titles, including this year's 1-meter title last night (Feb. 11). Gombash won the 200-yard butterfly for the second straight year, also giving her four career OAC individual titles. She set an OAC-record in the 200 with a time of 2:15.03, improving her own record set a year ago of 2:15.31.
In addition to Stancliff and Gombash, senior Kristen Showalter (Bowling Green) ended an outstanding career by placing second to Gombash in the 200 fly and swimming the lead leg on the winning 400-yard freestyle relay team that won in 3:44.61. Joining her on that relay team were freshmen Ambica Iyengar (INDIA) and Stephanie Markley (Mansfield Senior) and junior Emily Wood (Carrollton). Iyengar also placed second in the 100-yard free in 55.56 seconds, losing at the touch-pad by .01 seconds.
For the men, senior Keith DeVore (Mansfield/Ontario) and freshman Dave Fournier (Toledo/St. John's) turned in the top performances of the day. DeVore was second in the 200-yard breaststroke in 2:17.43 and Fournier was second in the 100 free in 48.18 seconds.
The Yellow Jacket swimmers and divers will be back in action this Saturday, Feb. 19 when they travel cross-town to Case Western Reserve University to compete at the annual Case National Qualifying Meet. Swimming will begin at 11:00 a.m.
FOR MORE B-W Sports Information, please call Sports Information Director Kevin Ruple by telephone at 440-826-2327, FAX him at 440-826-2329 or e-mail him at kruple@bw.edu.
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