Jacob Sorensen captured a conference championship and provisionally qualified for the NCAA Nationals.

KENOSHA, WIS. -- The Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology men's swimming team finished third and the women placed fifth at the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin swimming championships at Carthage College.

Rose-Hulman's tally for the weekend included  three NCAA Division III Provisional Qualification efforts, five school records and six all-conference awards.

Following the final event, Rose-Hulman head coach Michael Caruso was crowned as the 2008 CCIW Men's Coach of the Year.

Senior Jacob Sorensen (Enterprise, Ala./Daleville) paced Rose-Hulman with the first CCIW championship in the history of the Engineer swimming program.  Sorensen also provisionally qualified for the NCAA Division III National Championships with his time of 1:53.50 that tied Mike Kozak of Illinois Wesleyan to the hundreth of a second.

Sorensen added another all-conference honor with his second-place effort in the 200-yard individual medley with a school record time of 1:56.35.

Senior Adam Effinger (Plainfield) contributed a second-place finish in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 50.61 seconds.  In addition to earning all-conference honors, Effinger provisionally qualified for the NCAA Division III Swimming National Championships with a time that was 0.28 seconds faster than last year's final qualifying time.

Later in the weekend, Effinger provisionally qualified for the NCAA Division III Nationals in a second event by finishing fourth in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 1:54.67.

Junior Steven Vande Lune (Kokomo) added an all-league honor with a second-place performance in the 200-yard freestyle with the second best time in school history in 1:44.78.

Junior Nick Lee (Bryan, Texas) provided another all-conference performance with a second-place finish in the 100-yard backstroke.  Lee tallied the second-best time in school history with an effort of 53.75 seconds.

The 800-yard freestyle relay team enjoyed a school record performance to finish second and claim all-league accolades.  The team of Sorensen, sophomore Brian Yount (Bloomington, Ill.), Effinger and Vande Lune rewrote the Engineer record book with their time of 7:03.69.

The men's 200-yard freestyle relay and 400-freestyle teams each finished third overall.  Lee, Vande Lune, Yount and Effinger recorded the second-best time in school history with a performance of 1:26.28 in the 200-freestyle.  The grouping of Lee, Vande Lune, Effinger and Sorensen came home third in the 400-freestyle in a time of 3:09.96 for the final school record of the weekend.

Vande Lune added a pair of individual fourth-place finishes to the team score.  He tallied a time of 4:44.39 to set a school record in the 500-yard freestyle, then recorded a 1,650-freestyle time of 17:06.26 for the Engineers.

The men's 400-yard medley relay team of Yount, sophomore Clayton Shotwell (Arcadia/Hamilton Heights), Sorensen and Vande Lune added another fourth-place finish in a time of 3:37.62, the third-best performance in school history. 

In addition, the 200-yard medley relay squad of Lee, Shotwell, Effinger and Sorensen came home fourth with a school record time of 1:37.32.  Shotwell added a sixth-place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke with a finals time of 2:17.77.

Seventh-place performances included Sorensen in the 400-individual medley (4:14.86, less than one second off the school record); Yount in the 200-yard freestyle (1:47.59); Shotwell in the 100-breaststoke (1:02.16); and Lee in both the 50-freestyle (22.07) and 100-freestyle (47.68).  The 100-freestyle effort by Lee ranks third in school history.

The 200-yard medley relay second squad of senior Zach Tatlock (Shelbyville), freshman Matt Meyer (Gainesville, N.Y./Letchworth Central), sophomore Landry Carbo (Lafayette, La./Episcopal of Acadiana) and senior Stephen Rodriguez (Nashville, Tenn./University School) recorded a time of 1:43.85 to capture eighth-place honors.  Effinger contributed another eighth-place finish with a time of 22.13 in the 50-freestyle.

The second 800-freestyle relay team also finished eighth overall.  Freshman Andrew Ulrey (North Oaks, Minn./Mound View), Rodriguez, freshman Benjamin Hall (Bedford/North Lawrence) and senior John Whitten (Akron, Ohio/Walsh Jesuit) completed the race in a time of 7:34.87.

The women's team completed its fifth-place finish despite a squad of eight competitors.

Freshman Katie Trella (Des Plaines, Ill./Maine Township) smashed the school record in the 1,650-freestyle by more than nine seconds with a time of 18:27.35 to finish third to lead the women's strong team effort.  She also contributed the third-best women's 500-yard freestyle time in school history with a time of 5:23.89 to place fourth overall.

The 200-yard medley relay team matched Trella's performance with a fourth-place finish.  Sophomore Stephanie Hance (Noblesville), sophomore Deb Aleksa (Glendale, Ariz./Dear Valley), freshman Heather Weist (Arlington Heights, Ill./Buffalo Grove) and senior Anita Isch (Buffalo, Minn.) combined for a time of 1:58.76 in the performance.

The team of Trella, freshman Caitlin Kohli (Lima, Ohio/Bath), Weist and Isch recorded the second-best 800-freestyle relay time in school history to chalk up another fourth-place effort in 8:25.91.  The team of Trella, Weist, Hance and Isch capped the meet with a fourth-place performance in the 400-yard freestyle relay with a time of 3:49.62.

Rose-Hulman's women added a fifth-place finish in the 400-yard medley relay.  The team of Hance, freshman Emily Meyer (Chicago, Ill./Whitney Young), Aleksa and sophomore Sarah Nejfelt (Gosport/Edgewood) completed the event in a time of 4:34.85.  Hance opened the 100-backstroke portion of the event with a time of 1:01.75 for the second-best time in school history.

Aleksa narrowly missed topping her own school record with a sixth-place finish in the 400-individual medley in a time of 5:03.63.  Hance provided depth with seventh-place finishes in the 100-backstroke (1:02.34) and the second-fastest time in the Engineer record book in the 200-backstroke (2:17.65).

Trella added an eighth-place finish in the 200-freestyle in a time of 2:02.71, while Isch placed eighth in the 50-freestyle in 25.54 seconds.