BEREA, OHIO – Second-year Baldwin Wallace University Women's Swimming and Diving Coach Laura Wolff will look to continue to build her program into a perennial Ohio Athletic Conference championship contender this winter. She returns a solid corps of veterans and has recruited a group of newcomers who will make the Yellow Jackets better in 2012-2013.
The teams open the schedule this Friday (October 26) at Ohio Wesleyan University and open the OAC schedule on Saturday (Oct. 27) at Wilmington College.
"In terms of academics and athletics, we [the coaching staff] believe in the philosophy of the student-athlete 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 Wallace a great experience for each of our student-athletes."
The Yellow Jacket women return 11 letter winners from last season's squad, including six-time Division III All-American and CAPITAL ONE Academic All-American senior diver Julie Pinter (Broadview Heights/ Brecksville-Broadview Hts.). Pinter was the Div. III national runner-up in the 1-meter event and placed fourth in the 3-meter event. She also is the November OAC Student-Athlete of the Month.
"Julie is an outstanding student and athlete and deserves each and every award that she has received," said Wolff. "She embodies the philosophy of Division III athletics, and along with a number of our upper-class swimmers, is an excellent role models for the younger members of our team."
"On the swimming side, we return some excellent veterans" said Wolff. "We return each member of our 200-yard freestyle and 400-yard medley school record holding relay teams. Also important to note is that each returning swimmer reached the finals and scored for the Yellow Jackets at the OAC Championship Meet last season." Junior, Angela Musille (Canton/GlenOak) returns after setting school records in three events and making the NCAA Division III B-cut in both the 100 and 200-yard breaststroke events. Angela is the current OAC record-holder in both the 100 and 200 breaststroke.
In addition to Pinter and Musille for the women, senior Kelsey Richards (Wadsworth) and junior Emma Gerdes (Avon) will also be leaders in the pool. All four are school record-holders. Gerdes joined Musille, junior Kayla Miller (Van Wert) and sophomore Kayla Eyster (Canton, Mich./Plymouth-Canton) on the record-setting 400 medley relay squad. Richards joined sophomore Carli Dugan (Mentor), Kayla Miller and Eyster on the record-setting 200 free relay team.
"We return some very strong competitors to the women's squad," commented Wolff. The other returning letter winners include distance swimmers Emily Deaton (Spanaway, Wash./Graham-Kapowsin) and Caitlin Wilson (Wycombe, Pa./Council Rock North) and IM/Breastrokers Emily Payne (Ligonier, Pa./Ligonier Valley) and Olivia Vocke (Napoleon).
The incoming freshmen who will make a difference are Chandler Ashbaugh (Napoleon), Maddie Fortune (Akron/Firestone), Bridget Hughes (Avon), Maddie Miller (Medina) and Ifedimma Nwankwo (Bowie, Md./Eleanor Roosevelt).
FOR MORE BW SPORTS INFORMATION, please contact SID Kevin Ruple by telephone at 440-826-2327 and e-mail at kruple@bw.edu and Assistant SID Jeff Miller by telephone at 440-826-2780 and e-mail at jefmille@bw.edu. Fans can access the latest B-W athletics information at www.bwyellowjackets.com and we invite you to join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bwyellowjackets and Twitter at http://twitter.com/bwathletics.
