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Wheaton College Athletics

WSWIM_CCIW

Women's Swimming & Diving

Thunder swim teams earn first CCIW Championships sweep since 2007


COMPLETE RESULTS

Wheaton, Ill.- At the end of three days of swimming at Chrouser Natatorium, the Thunder swim teams ruled the pool, capturing their first CCIW Championships sweep since 2007. The Wheaton men broke Carthage's five year reign atop the CCIW and the women captured their 16th consecutive conference title. Wheaton's Wills Francis and Kirsty Nitz were named the men's and women's MVPs and Jon Lederhouse was named the CCIW Women's Coach of the Year.

"It was really special because that was one of our biggest goals this year was to have both the men and women win, so all through the year it was the aspect of if we could win a co-ed title," noted Lederhouse.

The Wheaton women started the day strong, taking three of the top four places in the 1650-yard freestyle. Sarah Pankratz, Caroline Dirks and Laura Westfall finished 2-3-4 with Pankratz finishing in a time of 17:40.39.

Jamie Walitsch (PICTURED LEFT) turned in a national Top 30 time in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:04.21. Sarah Coley continued her strong weekend with a top finish in the 100-yard freestyle, turning in a time of 52.75 and beating Augustana's Hillary Ferguson to the wall by just .07 seconds.

Chelsey Long was runner up in the 200-yard breaststroke but still turned in a national Top 30 time, finishing in 2:24.31. Katie Deysher turned in a Top 30 time in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:08.57 but was runner-up in the event.

Wheaton's 400-yard freestyle relay team of Coley, Kelly Ormond, Katie Cialkowski and Nitz capped the evening for the Thunder, finishing in 3:26.74 to turn in an NCAA selection time and also set a new conference record in the process.

Korey Clement (PICTURED RIGHT) had a third place finish in the 1650-yard freestyle with a time of 16:26.44. Carl Sveen was runner up in the 200-yard backstroek with a timeof 1:54.93.

Wills Francis capatured the top time in the 100-yard freestyle, finishing in 45.88 seconds. The Thunder had a very strong finish in the 200-yard breaststroke. Jon Lait touched the wall first in 2:06.90 and was followed by Elliot Penson in third (2:07.62) and Devon VanBeek in fourth (2:08.11).

With their team lead dwindling, Wheaton's 400-yard freestyle relay team of Francis, Dave Brown, Tim Walker and Hayes Wilkerson clinched the team title by finishing in second place wtih a Top 30 time of 3:04.83.

Kirsty Nitz continued her assault on the competition and the record books on Friday, setting conference records and national selection times in the 100-yard butterfly (53.06) and 100-yard backstroke (54.73). Nitz joined Emma Rogers, Sarah Hunt and Kelly Ormond in the 200-yard medley relay with a winning time of 1:45.62. 

Jamie Walitsch finished second to Nitz in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 58.28. She also finished second to Katie Deysher in the 400-yard individual medley. Deysher's time of 4:28.84 was a national select time while Walitsch's time of 4:33.09 was a national Top 30 time.

Chelsey Long finished third in a close race in the 100-yard breast stroke. Katie Cialkowski and Sarah Coley provided a 1-2 finish in the 200-yard freestyle with Coley finishing half a second behind Cialkowski's 1:53.66. Wheaton's 800-yard freestyle relay team of Coley, Sarah Pankratz, Laura Westfall and Cialkowksi finished in 7:40.15 to earn a national selection time.

The men's team finished second in a pair of relays. The 200-yard medley relay team of Wills Francis, Dave Brown, Jack Raymond and Tim Walker finished in second with a time of 1:32.22, one-hundredth of a second behind Rose-Hulman.  Wheaton was also second in the 800-yard freestyle relay with a time of 6:57.15.

Francis repeated his CCIW championship in the 100-yard backstroke, setting a conference record time of 50.18 seconds.

Jon Lait and Nick Pulgine finished 2-3 in the 400-yard individual medley, both times were national Top 30 times.  Hayes Wilkerson and Korey Clement were separated by .05 seconds in a 2-3 finish in the 200-yard freestyle.

The men's team competition is still a wide open competition as Wheaton is in the lead with 591 points trailed by Carthage with 519 points and Rose-Hulman with 511 points.
The Wheaton men's and women's swim teams sit atop the leaderboards at the conclusion of the first day of the CCIW Championships.  Winners of the last 15 conference meets, the Wheaton women's swim team scored 326 points on the first day of competition to lead Carthage College by 72 points. On the men's side, Wheaton scored 324 points and Rose-Hulman is in second place with 266.

Kirsty Nitz (PICTURED RIGHT) provided some fireworks for the Thunder starting in the 50-yard freestyle when her prelim time of 22.98 established a new CCIW meet record. That record would not survive the day though as Nitz bested her own mark in the finals with a time of 22.66 seconds. The time is her best of the season in the event and makes Nitz the only swimmer in the nation to have broken the 23 second mark in the event. Nitz also joined Marcey Wennlund, Kelly Ormond and Ali Offerdahl on Wheaton's 200-yard freestyle relay team that established a national top 10 time and also broke the CCIW meet record with a time of 1:34.92.

Illinois Wesleyan's Lauren Dineen-Griffin established a national top 10 time in the 500-yard freestyle but was chased to the wall by a hoard of Thunder swimmers in the 500-yard freestyle. Carlie Herich, Laura Westfall and Katie Cialkowski swept the next three positions and Sarah Pankratz rounded out the top five.

Katie Deysher broke the CCIW meet record and also established a national top 10 time in the 200-yard individual medley, touching the wall in 2:06.80. Deysher also was part of Wheaton's 400-yard medley relay team that turned in an NCAA selection time of 3:53.12. Deysher was joined by Jamie Walitsch, Chelsey Long, and Kirsty Nitz.

The men's 200-yard freestyle relay featured a thrilling finish as Wheaton's team of Wills Francis, Tim Walker, Hayes Wilkerson and David Brown finished in 1:23.78, just one-tenth of a second ahead of Rose-Hulman. Francis and Walker also joined Jon Lait (PICTURED LEFT) and Carl Sveen on the 400-yard medley relay that finished runner-up to Rose-Hulman with a time of 3:26.03. Francis also captured top honors in the 50-yard freestyle, touching in 20.92 seconds.

The 200-yard individual medley featured an exciting finish with all of the top three finishing within a second of each other. Illinois Wesleyan's Marcus Duval won the event in 1:54.15, just barely beating out Elliot Penson (1:54.65) and Jon Lait (1:54.88).  Nick Pulgine was third in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:38.24.
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