BEREA, OHIO -- The Baldwin-Wallace College women's swimming and diving team continues to lead the Ohio Athletic Conference Championship Meet after two days and nights of competition at John Carroll University in University Heights, Ohio. The Yellow Jacket men are third.
The Yellow Jacket women are seeking a second OAC title in the past four years. That title is still the only OAC men's or women's swimming title in B-W school history.
The Yellow Jacket women have 175 points and are 10 points ahead of defending champion JCU and 31 points in front of third place Wilmington College. The B-W women had three individual champions on Day Two. The B-W men trail first place Ohio Northern University by 53 points and second place JCU by 50. The Yellow Jacket men had one individual champion tonight.
For the women, senior Kristen Showalter (Bowling Green) won the 200-yard freestyle for the third consecutive year and won her sixth individual OAC title with a 2:00.43 timing. Sophomore Sara Gombash (Perrysburg/ Toledo Notre Dame) won the 100-yard butterfly for the second straight year with a time of 1:00.28. She actually swam a better time in the preliminaries with a 59.97-second timing which was .40 off of her own OAC record that she set a year ago as a freshman. The final women's champion was sophomore Julie Stancliff (Erie, Pa./ McDowell) who won the 1-meter diving event for the second consecutive year. She was first with 334.10 points. With a win tomorrow in the 3-meter event, Stancliff has an opportunity to claim the OAC Women's Diver of the Year award for the second straight year.
For the men, sophomore Luke Grilli (Londonderry, N.H./ Londonderry) won the 100-yard backstroke in 56.51 seconds.
The third and final day of the OAC Championship Meet will take place tomorrow, Saturday, Feb. 12 at JCU. Preliminary competition begins at 11:00 a.m. and the finals begin that evening at 6:00 p.m.
FOR MORE INFORMATION on B-W athletics, please contact Sports Information Director Kevin Ruple by telephone at 440-826-2327 or FAX him at 440-826-2329 or e-mail him at kruple@bw.edu.
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