BEREA, OHIO -- The Baldwin-Wallace College men's and women's swimming and diving teams have a new leader and are both hoping to have a better season in 2011-12

Newly hired interim coach Laura Wolff replaced former coach Sara Gildea who left the College to become the head assistant coach at Savannah College (Ga.) of Art & Design.  With less than a month to prepare for the season, Wolff has been working hard with her men and women to get ready to face Wilmington College this Saturday (October 29, 2011) in Berea at 4:00 p.m.

"In terms of academics and athletics, we [the coaching staff] believe in the philosophy of the student-athlete and excelling in the classroom, in the pool, on campus and in the community," said Wolff. "We believe that academics come first at a Division III school, and we also know that we can make swimming and diving at Baldwin-Walace College an enjoyable experience for each of our student-athletes."

"In terms of swimming, our goals are to have fun everyday, be competitive in every meet in which we compete, to win the prestigious Ohio Athletic Conference Championship and to qualify as many swimmers and divers as possible to the NCAA Division III National Championship Meet.  We will work hard and work with our student-athletes to achieve those goals."

The Yellow Jacket women return 10 letterwinners from last season's squad that finished 2-12 overall. That team set 10 school and one Natatorium record and includes the school's first-ever four-time All-American in women's swimming and diving in junior diver Julie Pinter (Broadview Heights/ Brecksville-Broadview Heights.).

"We return some excellent veteran swimmers and Julie will lead our diving corps," said Wolff. "We are a bit thin on numbers this season, but I am confident that it will change as we move forward. We have been working hard and are looking forward to competing this Saturday against Wilmington.  The men and women are ready to go!"     

In addition to Pinter for the women, junior Kelsey Richards (Wadsworth) and sophomores Emma Gerdes (Avon) and Angela Musille (Canton/ GlenOak) will be the leaders.  All four are school record-holders.

A year ago, Pinter reset school records in four of the five diving events, won both the 1-meter and 3-meter events at the OAC Championships Meet for the second straight year, was named as the OAC Diver of the Year for the second consecutive season and became a four-time NCAA Division III All-American by placing fourth in the 1-meter event and sixth in the 3-meter event.

Competing in her second season of swimming Richards had two personal-bests last season (in the 100 backstroke and 200 backstroke) and was also a part of last season's school-record 200-yard freestyle relay team.

Gerdes and Musille each had an outstanding freshman season. Gerdes had a number of team and personal bests, set school individual records in the 100 and 200-yard backstroke events and joined Musille on the school-record 200-yard medley relay team.  Musille set school records in the 100 and 200-yard breaststroke events and also joined Richards on the record-setting 200 free relay squad.

"In Julie, Kelsey, Emma and Angela, we return four very strong competitors to the women's squad," commented Wolff. "We also have others who are working hard to make a difference this season."

Following its meet against Wilmington, the Yellow Jackets return to action on Saturday, November 5 when they travel to Erie, Pennsylvania to face nonleague foe Penn State Behrend at 1:00 p.m. The next home meet is on Saturday, Nov. 12 against Washington & Jefferson (Pa.) College at 4:00 p.m.

FOR MORE B-W Sports Information, please contact Sports Information Director Kevin Ruple by telephone at 440-826-2327 and e-mail at kruple@bw.edu. or Assistant SID Jeff Miller by phone at 440-826-2780 and email at jefmille@bw.edu Fans can access the latest B-W athletics information at www.bw.edu/athletics and we invite you to join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bwyellowjackets and Twitter at http://twitter.com/bwathletics.