Titans Finish Fifth At WIAC Championship

Melissa Harvey (Jr. • Kingsford, Mich.) and Samantha Sommers (Jr. • Suamico) both swam to a pair of top-nine finishes as the UW-Oshkosh women's swimming and diving team placed fifth at the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Championship held this past weekend (Feb. 17-19) at the Schroeder Aquatic Center in Brown Deer.

UW-Stevens Point scored 839 points to capture its second straight WIAC title and sixth overall. UW-La Crosse finished second with 813.5 points, while UW-Eau Claire placed third with 724, UW-Whitewater fourth with 441.5, UW-Oshkosh fifth with 240 and UW-River Falls sixth with 185.

Harvey finished sixth for the Titans in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 59.94 seconds and seventh in the 200-yard backstroke with a performance of 2:10.61. She also joined Sommers, Emily Shandley (So. • Oak Creek) and Heather Statz (Sr. • Sun Prairie) in posting a fourth-place time of 3:44.22 in the 400-yard freestyle relay.

UW-Oshkosh's highest finish in the meet belonged to Sommers, who placed second in the 200-yard butterfly with a school-record time of 2:11.27. Sommers also finished ninth in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 59.76 seconds.

Other UW-Oshkosh results had Shandley finishing 10th in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 54.15 seconds, Leanne Bowen (So. • Dardenne Prairie, Mo.) 11th in the three-meter diving with 326.45 points, Katie Duffey (So. • McFarland) 11th in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:22.67 and Kathleen Cleppe (Fr. • Grafton) 12th in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:15.03.

UW-La Crosse's Nicole Dorvinen was named the Swimmer of the Meet, while the Eagles' Rachel LaValley earned the Diver of the Meet prize. UW-Eau Claire's Art Brandt was selected as the league's Coach of the Year.

UW-La Crosse’s Katelyn Hartung and UW-Stevens Point’s Beth Ann Abraham were named co-recipients of the WIAC's Judy Kruckman Scholar-Athlete Award.