Wisconsin-Milwaukee Teams Take Home Bill Ritter Invite Titles

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin, January 20. – THE University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's swimming & diving team won the championship at the Bill Ritter Invitational on Saturday for the second-straight season and the fourth time in the past five years. Despite competing shorthanded, the men's swimming & diving team also won the Bill Ritter Invitational for the first time since the 1997-98 season.

"It was definitely a nice surprise," UWM head coach Dave Griffore said. "When I knew we were going to have two of our top guys out [senior Chase Gravengood and junior Jeremy Seibel did not swim due to illness], I kind of stopped paying attention to the scores thinking we may have less of a chance. I felt that we didn't swim very well overall, but we competed very well and that was the difference."

The Panthers finished with 1,086 points, beating UW-Green Bay (1,057), Illinois State (818) and UIC (528). Green Bay is the defending league champion and had entered the meet at 9-1 in duals this season. The Milwaukee men had 1,055.5 points to take the honors, defeating UW-Green Bay (1,015) and UIC (955.5).

"It makes for a great meet, but if you look at last year, we won this event and went on to finish third at the league championships," UWM head coach Dave Griffore said. "I don't think winning this meet helps you at the end of the year, but shows that we have good depth. The kids competed hard and we have a lot of depth that came out and that was the difference in the meet."

Caldwell won the 100 and 200 freestyle, topping the field in the 100 in 52.24 and the 200 in 1:54.61. That gave her three wins on the weekend, having claimed the 50 free on Friday. She also played a key role on the Milwaukee relay teams, swimming with the first-place 400 free and 400 medley relays, the second-place 800 free relay and the third-place 200 free relay team.

Berndt started the day helping UWM take second in the 200 medley relay and then won the 100 breaststroke in 1:05.74 and the 200 breaststroke in 2:27.55. Her time in the 100 breast was a pool and UWM freshman record.

"For her to swim this fast coming out of Christmas training, then the sky is the limit for how fast she can swim at the end," Griffore said.

Personal highlights included a first-place showing from sophomore Molly Finn in the 200 butterfly, and close second-place finishes from junior Briana Fergusson in the 100 butterfly (first place was a pool-record effort from GB's Ashley Warzon) and sophomore Kristina Hansen, who was touched out in the 100 backstroke (1:01.31 to 1:01.05). Finn also took second in the 400 IM

Other top finishers for UWM included the first-place 400 free relay team of Hansen, freshman Jenny Westfall, junior Jess Kelly and Caldwell in 3:35.80, while freshman Bailey Nennig was third in the 200 breast and fourth in the 400 IM. Freshman Kerry Rossow chipped in, taking third in the 100 breast.

Griffore talked about the diving team going 1-2-3 on both boards on Friday as one of the keys to the meet.

"The diving was unreal. They did a fantastic job. It's important for the team to realize that when the swimming and diving teams come together at the end of the year, we will he a tough team to beat."

Sophomore Robby Leibold played a key role, winning the first and last events of the day. He started the morning with a win in the 400 IM in 4:10.81, and then topped that in the last event of the day. He won the 1650 freestyle in 16:16.59, setting a new Klotsche Natatorium record in the process.

"Robby is a very good swimmer," Griffore said. "Anytime he goes faster than he did the year before is a move in the right direction. I look for big things from him. He's training well, so we want him to move forward."

Freshman Jeremy Waldhart also continued his fine performance on the weekend. After taking second in the 200 IM on Friday, Waldhart added two more second place efforts on Saturday. He finished just behind Leibold in the 400 IM in 4:14.04, and then was second to Green Bay's Joey Weber in the 200 back, touching the wall in 1:55.76.

"Jeremy's 200 back was excellent," Griffore said. "If you could see this kid train day in and day out he's just a workhorse."

Leibold and Waldhart led a team effort in the 400 IM, as UWM had five of the top 10 finishers. In the 100 butterfly, junior Ross Bittner (second in 54.40) and freshman Ed Lichinsky (fourth in 55.25) also gave Milwaukee a good showing.

The Panthers also had two of the top five in the 200 freestyle, with junior David Yugo third and sophomore David Adams fifth.

The mile was also a strong event for the home team. In addition to Leibold's record-breaking performance, Adams was second in 16:42.26 and senior Karl Winderl was fifth in 17:23.90.

Lastly, junior Tyler Jefferson took second in the 100 backstroke in 54.35 to top the list of five UWM swimmers in the top 10 of the event.

The Panthers close out the home portion of the regular season with a dual meet against Western Illinois, starting at 2 p.m. on Jan. 27.

The women will be home for the final time this season next week Saturday, taking on Western Illinois in non-conference action Jan. 27. The meet with the Westerwinds is scheduled for a 2 p.m. start.

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