Posted by: Ryan Maurer

Stephanie Campbell

Rebecca Meers

If the Wittenberg women's basketball team didn't already have complete command of the 2002-03 North Coast Athletic Conference regular season race, they do now. With a surprisingly easy 71-52 defeat of two-time defending NCAC tournament champion Ohio Wesleyan on Saturday, the Tigers own a three-game advantage in the regular season race.

Now with a 9-0 NCAC record, Wittenberg has the inside track on serving as host of the conference's tournament championship Feb. 25-March 1. The Tigers hosted the tourney a year ago but were upset in the title game by OWU in overtime and missed out on an opportunity to advance to the NCAA Division III tournament for the first time since 1998.

Playing on the road against second-place Ohio Wesleyan, Wittenberg rallied from an early 17-9 deficit to cruise to a 71-52 victory. It was the second time in less than a month that Wittenberg had beaten the Battling Bishops.

With the game tied 17-17 at the 5:39 mark of the first half, Wittenberg went on a 9-0 run in which four different players scored in a span of two minutes. That sparked the Tigers to a 38-23 halftime lead, a significant advantage that stretched to as much as 24 points thanks to a 12-4 run to open the second half.

Wittenberg hit 46 percent of its shots in the game, including 57 percent in the first half, compared to 42 percent for Ohio Wesleyan. The Tigers won the rebounding battle 37-33, including 15 offensive caroms for the visitors, and OWU lost the turnover battle 18-15. Neither team shot well from the free throw line as Wittenberg hit 58 percent and the Bishops only 47 percent. Senior center Rebecca Meers (Moline, Ill./Moline) led all scorers with 18 points as she hit seven of her 11 shots from the field and 4-of-5 from the charity stripe. Senior guard Kate Rolf (Ft. Wayne, Ind./Carroll) added 14 points and game-highs of eight rebounds, seven assists and three steals in a tremendous all-around performance. Senior guard Stephanie Campbell (South Charleston, Ohio/Southeastern) added 10 points and five rebounds to the cause.

Wittenberg goes back to work this week on Tuesday in a game at Kenyon and then home dates on Friday and Saturday with Hiram and Allegheny. A clean sweep of those games would bring Wittenberg within one win of clinching at least a share of the conference regular season title and home court advantage for the NCAC tournament. Saturday's game against Allegheny will be televised on tape delay by Time Warner Cable in the Dayton area. Broadcast details will be released later this week.

Next: 2/4 at Kenyon, 7:30 p.m.
2/7 vs. Hiram, 6 p.m.
2/8 vs. Allegheny, 2 p.m.

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Mark Trempe

Tina Valerius

The Wittenberg men's and women's indoor track teams put together an outstanding performance in the NCAC Relays Saturday afternoon at Denison University. The Tigers finished second in the men's competition and third in the women's.

For the second straight week, Wittenberg had an NCAC Athlete of the Week on the track. This time it was the four members of the 4 x 200-meter relay team, which captured first place in a time of 1:32.81, just over one second short of the three-year-old meet record. The relay consisted of freshman Jered Glover (Middletown, Ohio/Middletown), senior Mark Trempe (Springfield, Ohio/St. Paris Graham), junior Demetrius Ellison (Cleveland, Ohio/Trinity) and sophomore Joe Rumschlag (Maumee, Ohio/Toledo Christian). The same four combined to win the Sprint Medley relay with a school record time of 3:44.12, bettering the eight-year-old record of 3:44.47.

In the field events, senior Joel Drake (Springfield, Ohio/Shawnee), freshman Adam Stone (Bucyrus, Ohio/Bucyrus) and freshman Thomas Dillingham (Cincinnati, Ohio/Princeton) all had personal best throws in the shot put as the three combined to finish second in the relay formatted competition. Juniors Bill Dunlap (Columbus, Ohio/Upper Arlington) and Tim Gaal (Amanda, Ohio/Clearcreek) each cleared 5-10 to tie for second in the high jump relay. For Gaal, a national outdoor track and field qualifier in the javelin a year ago, the mark was a personal best.

To round things out, freshman Matt Locke (South Charleston, Ohio/Southeastern) had a personal best in the 55-meter hurdles with a time of 8.09 and joined with sophomore Jason Toman (Greenville, Ohio/Greenville) and senior Nate Henderson (Kettering, Ohio/Dayton Carroll) to place second. And the 4 x 400-meter relay quartet of Locke, sophomore Chad Kresser (Findlay, Ohio/Findlay), Trempe and Ellison also placed second.

On the women's side, the highlight was a school record time of 4:24.21 in the sprint medley relay, which improved upon a mark established last year at the same meet. Sophomore Tina Valerius (Cincinnati, Ohio/Mt. Notre Dame), freshman Domonique Hardy (Cincinnati, Ohio/Summit Country Day), junior Kristen Mumper (Cincinnati, Ohio/Purcell Marian) and junior Kelly Zilli (Dayton, Ohio/Alter) are the new record-holders.

The 4 x 400 relay quartet of freshman Anna Finkelstein (Whitehall, Mich./Reeths-Puffer), sophomore Marissa Davoll (Cincinnati, Ohio/Anderson), freshman Jennifer Brigham (Depew, NY/Depew) and senior Abi Gerstle (Kettering, Ohio/Fairmont) took third place. Also with a third-place finish was the Distance Medley foursome of Zilli, Finkelstein, freshman Tracy Butler (Ft. Wayne, Ind./Homestead) and Gerstle.

Rounding things out in the field events, third place also went to the Tiger high jump relay of senior Amanda Young (London, Ohio/London) and freshman Sarah Grabenstatter (Columbus, Ohio/Grandview) and the triple jump relay of Mumper and Young.

Next: 2/8 at Anderson (Ind.)

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B.J. Harris

Brett Bowen

The road can be a treacherous place for a North Coast Athletic Conference men's basketball contender. That was proven true again last week as the Tiger men's basketball team lost its second straight conference road game.

The loss at Allegheny on Saturday came on the heels of what was possibly Wittenberg's finest game of the season, a suprisingly easy 82-46 defeat of visiting Earlham on Wednesday. It left Wittenberg at 13-5 overall, but more importantly the Tigers are 8-2 in the NCAC and two games behind sixth-ranked Wooster in the standings. With several difficult games remaining on the schedule, Wittenberg cannot afford another loss if it wants to complete the rare regular season three-peat and host the NCAC tournament for a third consecutive season.

The game against Earlham was never a contest as Wittenberg sprinted out to a 15-3 lead in the first five minutes of the game. By halftime, the Tigers owned a commanding 40-22 advantage, and that lead only grew in the final 20 minutes. All 14 players in uniform for the Tigers saw at least three minutes of action, and 11 of them scored at least two points.

Four Tiger players finished in double figures in scoring in the game. Junior forward Peter Walker (Louisville, Ky./St. Xavier) led all scorers with 13 points off the bench on 6-of-6 shooting from the field. Sophomore guard Brett Bowen (Arcadia, Ind./Hamilton Heights) poured in a career-high 11 points on 4-of-4 shooting, including three straight first-half three-pointers. And three starters wound up with 10 points, sophomore forward Andy Bucheit (Cincinnati, Ohio/LaSalle), senior forward Kevin Longley (Vandalia, Ohio/Butler) and senior center B.J. Harris (Riverside, Ohio/Stebbins).

For Harris, those 10 points were extra meaningful as he went over the 1,000-point plateau for his career. He became the 25th player in Wittenberg history to score more than 1,000 points in his career and the first since Ryan Taylor crossed the threshold in the 2000-01 season. As a team, Wittenberg won the rebounding battle 37-22 and made 30 of its 53 attempts from the field, good for a 56.6 shooting percentage. In addition, the Tigers hit 56 percent from three-point range and 93 percent (13-of-14) from the free throw line.

But after playing so well against Earlham on Wednesday, the Tigers couldn't find the same form on the road on Saturday at Allegheny. The Gators may be in the middle of the conference pack in 2002-03 but they are clearly a team on the rise, and they broke through for their biggest win of the year 66-63 over Wittenberg.

Allegheny hurt Wittenberg forced 20 Tiger turnovers, a key statistic in a game in which the visitors dominated the rebounding category 46-30, including 20 Wittenberg offensive rebounds. Wittenberg led by as much as seven points twice in the first half, but the Gators went on a 17-9 run over the final 10 minutes to take a 28-27 lead into the locker room at halftime. In the second half, Allegheny came out firing and pulled out to a 54-42 lead at the 8:09 mark before the Tigers made a late charge to pull within three points on four occasions in the final two minutes. For the game, the Tigers were sure on just 37 percent of their attempts from the field, including a 9-of-27 performance from beyond the three-point arc, and managed just 4-of-9 from the free throw line.

Walker had his biggest game in months with 22 points, including four 3-pointers and a 9-for-12 performance from the field. Harris had his third double-double of the season with 17 points and 10 rebounds, sophomore guard Danny Brywczynski (Dayton, Ohio/Northmont) chipped in with 10 points and freshman center Daniel Russ (Louisville, Ky./Trinity) came off the bench to grab 10 rebounds.

The Tigers don't have time to feel sorry for themselves, however. Next up is a home date on Wednesday against Ohio Wesleyan, one of the other preseason conference favorites, and a road game on Saturday against Hiram, which upset the Bishops last week.

Next: 2/5 vs. O. Wesleyan, 7:30 p.m.
2/8 at Hiram, 6 p.m.

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Rebecca Searcy

Kyle Dunaway

The Wittenberg men's and women's swimming and diving teams finished off the 2002-03 dual meet season on Saturday with a pair of defeats against Case Western Reserve at the HPER Center Natatorium. The Tiger men finished the challenging dual meet campaign with a 5-6 record, while the women wound up at 5-5.

In what seems to be a weekly event, freshman Rebecca Searcy (Shelbyville, Ky./Shelby County Bloomington) reached another NCAA B cut against Case Western, this time in the 500-yard freestyle. She now has three NCAA provisional qualifying times, and is moving closer and closer to assuring herself of a berth in the national meet in March in Atlanta.

Pool record in the 200 backstroke by Betany Yeakley (Wilmington, Ohio/Wilmington) in 2:11.90. She is less than one second away from the NCAA provisional qualifying standard of 2:11.19. Season best time for Anne Overly (Kalamazoo, Mich./Portage Northern) in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:35.31 and she recorded win in the event in her collegiate career.

On the men's side, junior All-American Steve Rader (Painesville, Ohio/Cleveland St. Ignatius) just missed the pool record in the 200 butterfly in finishing first in the meet. Junior Kyle Dunaway (Warren, Ohio/Howland) claimed first place in the 200 back in his season-best time of 2:05.06.

Next up for the Tigers is the NCAC Championship meet at C.T. Branin Natatorium in Canton, Ohio. That meet features some of the finest competition in all of NCAA Division III, including perennial national champion Kenyon and national powers Denison, Wooster and Wabash. The Tigers have finished fourth in both men's and women's each of the last two years.

Next: 2/14-16 NCAC Championships at Canton, Ohio