Jan. 24, 2003

Results

MILWAUKEE - Helped by a strong showing from the divers, the UWM women's swimming and diving team is in first place after the first day's action in the seventh annual Bill Ritter Invitational Friday afternoon in Milwaukee. The Panthers scored 112 points on the two diving boards to help account for the 341 points UWM scored on the day. Hannah Burgard won the 3m competition and finished second on 1m to lead the Panther divers.

UWM leads Illinois State by 80 points, 341-261, while UW-Green Bay sits third with 253 points. UIC is in fifth with 216, followed by Northern Iowa with 194, Butler with 70 and Marquette's club team in seventh with 20 points.

Burgard scored 400.25 on 3m to collect first place, while Krystina Herzog was second with 378.90. Erin Blemberg finished fourth with 357.80 points, while Becky Rubel was sixth with 347.75 points. On the shorter board, Burgard totaled 213.90 points, followed by Rubel in third with 196.20 and Herzog in sixth with 192.45 points.

But the Panther swimmers joined in with some of the strongest efforts to date on the season. Jen Kedinger led the way with a second-place finish in the 500 freestyle in 5:14.56, while Amanda Schmitt finished seventh in the same event in 5:21.44 and Sarah Valley was eighth in 5:22.02. Milwaukee had two finishers in the top eight in the other two individual events on the day, as Danielle Bradley was fourth in the 200 individual medley in 2:16.83 and Kari Kinney was eighth in 2:18.24. In the 50 freestyle, Nicole Rosinski was fifth in 25.78, while Beth Watt was eighth with a time of 26.08.

The Panther relays also chipped in, led by the 400 medley relay team of Emily Holcomb, Amanda Chan, Beth Watt and Nicole Rosinski's win in 4:03.35. The B relay team of Patricia Frank, Kristin Cefalu, Natalie Oettinger and Jenny Behr was sixth in 4:12.87. In the meet's first event, the 200 freestyle relay, the Panther team of Jenny Behr, Rachel Smith, Beth Watt and Nicole Rosinski finished third in 142.80.

The meet continues with the third session Saturday morning at 10 a.m. in the Klotsche Center Pool, and concludes with the fourth session Saturday afternoon, beginning at 3:30 p.m.