at NCAA Division III championship

March 19-20, 2009

Junior David Gatz (Delaware/Hayes) won All-America honors in the 100 breaststroke while representing Ohio Wesleyan at the NCAA Division III championship meet, hosted by Macalester College on Friday in Minneapolis.
Official championship site

In Friday's preliminaries of the 100 breaststroke, Gatz finished eighth in a time of :56.07, qualifying him for the finals of the event. His time pared nearly a quarter of a second off the school record of :56.31 he set in winning the North Coast Athletic Conference championship last month.

Gatz became the first Ohio Wesleyan swimmer to make the national finals in his event since 1994, when Matt Colvig made the finals in the 200 breaststroke, Rob Fellinger qualified in both the 200 IM and the 200 backstroke, and Kevin Gosselin made the finals in the 200 butterfly.

In Friday's finals, Gatz finished sixth in :55.44, becoming Ohio Wesleyan's first All-American since 1994 and lowering his school record by more than half a second.

Gatz is scheduled to compete in the 200 breaststroke on Saturday.

On Thursday, Gatz swam in the preliminaries of the 100 butterfly, clocking a :52.89.