12 NCAA Qualifiers
CLARION WOMEN 5TH AND MEN 3RD AT AKRON INVITE
(Akron, Ohio): The Clarion women’s and men’s swimming and diving teams finished their Fall semester of competition with a strong showing at the Zippy Invitational in Akron, Ohio with 8 women and 4 men qualifying for the NCAA Division II Nationals in March in Buffalo, N.Y.
The mostly Division I meet saw the Clarion women finish 5th out of 10 teams, while the men placed 3rd out of 8 teams in the three days of competition.
The women’s scoring saw Akron first with 1235, Ohio U. second with 1168.5, Cal-Davis third with 1069, Illinois State fourth with 1005.5, Clarion fifth with 987, Duquesne sixth at 963, Buffalo seventh with 933, Xavier eighth with 731.5, Bloomsburg ninth with 416 and Shippensburg tenth with 375.5 points.
On the men’s side Ohio U. was first with 1322, Duquesne second with 1240, Clarion third at 1162.5, Buffalo fourth with 1162, St. Bonaventure fifth with 1064.5, Xavier sixth with 1036, Shippensburg seventh with 788 and Bloomsburg eighth with 377.
In women’s competition the Golden Eagles had three national qualifying relays. The 200 free relay was third with an NCAA time of 1:36.95 with Brittany Hanzl (Sr. Whitehall), Lori Leitzinger (Jr. State College), Stacy Ogden (Sr. Clearfield) and Kristy Clarke (Sr. Campbell Hall, N.Y.). the 400 medley relay was 4th with an NCAA time of 3:56.24 swum by Leitzinger, Denise Simens (So. Hollister, Ca.), Katie Kuntz (Sr. N. Canton, Oh.) and Sari Cattoni (Jr. Lewis Run/Bradford). The final NCAA relay was the 800 free which ended third (7:43.36) and had Hanzl, Rebecca Burgess (Fr. Gibsonia/Pine Richland), Clark and Cattoni swim, gave the Eagles 8 NCAA National Qualifiers.
Top individual swims had Hanzl third in the 50 free (24.30), Leitzinger third in the 100 back (58.71), Simens third in the 100 breaststroke (1:05.59) and Kuntz fourth in the 400 IM.
In diving, Jamie Wolf (Sr. South Park), a 5-time D-II National Champion, won the 1 meter competition with 262.85 points and finished second on three meter with 291.30.
The men’s competition saw Adley Kilgore (Sr. Airville), Andrew Claypool (So. Kittanning), Mike Cohen (Jr. Pickerington, Oh.) and Ryan Thiel (Fr. Ligonier) qualify for D-II Nationals when the 200 free relay team swam a 1:23.06 to finish second. Kilgore also qualified for the D-II Nationals in the 50 free with his relay leadoff time of 20.60.
The 200 medley relay team swam a 1:35.46 and missed the NCAA qualifying time by only 27 hundredths of a second. Mike Kerr (Jr. Lansdale), Rick Eckert (Fr. Versailles/McKeesport), Cohen and Kilgore raced in that event.
The 400 medley relay of Kerr, Eckert, Cohen and Thiel finished first with a time of 3:28.57.
Kilgore meanwhile was second in the 100 free (45.94) and Eckert placed 2nd in the 200 breaststroke (2:09.06) and 4th in the 100 breast (59.18).
Clarion is now off until they compete in Florida at the CSCAA Forum in January. The next dual is January 19 when the Eagles host Allegheny and January 20th hosting Edinboro, both at Tippin Natatorium.