Breitigam gets NCAA "B" Cut in 200 fly, leads Men's Swimming & Diving on third day of Wooster Invitational

By Tim Glon

WOOSTER — Senior All-American Jordan Breitigam surpassed the NCAA "B" Cut for the second time in as many days to lead the Ohio Northern men's swimming & diving team on the third and final day of the Wooster Invitational on Saturday at the Shapiro Natatorium.

The Polar Bears finished second of nine teams with 1,398 points, Case Western Reserve won the team title with 1,509 points, No. 34-ranked (NCAA Division II) Malone was third with 1,074 points and Westminster (Pa.) was fourth with 955points.

Breitigam finished second in the 200 fly in an NCAA "B" Cut time of 1:53.61, finishing just. 1 of a second out of first place.

On Friday, Breitigam won the 100 fly in an NCAA "B" Cut and just missed sweeping the fly events.

Freshman Eric Chen, sophomore Mitchell Murphy, freshman Logan Pfeifer and senior John Beaschler finished second in the 400 free relay in 3:06.72, marking the team's highest relay finish in the meet.

All four Polar Bears also placed in the top eight in the 100 free, as Beaschler was fifth in :47.25, Pfeifer was sixth in :47.48, Chen was seventh in :47.52 and Murphy was eighth in :47.61.

Three other ONU swimmers joined Breitigam with top 10 finishes in the 200 fly.

Freshman John Raker was fifth in 1:56.80, senior Erik Arent was sixth in 1:57.32 and freshman Jeremy Preston was 10th in 1:57.57.

Sophomore Zack Martin was fifth in the 1650 free in 16:46.66.

Juniors Jason Luthman and Brian Heilbronner each had eighth place finishes. Luthman was eighth in the 200 breast in 2:12.49 and Heilbronner was eighth in the 200 back in 1:57.20.

"Over the course of the last three days, it was exciting to see the effort of training transfer to racing," ONU head coach Peggy Ewald said. "This meet gave us a snippet of what's to come as we transition into the second half of our season next week. We saw some depth in many of our events and will need to build on this going forward. We reached some target goals, and now need to set a few new benchmarks, and aim to continue sharpening our skills in preparation for the next phase." 

The top 24 individuals and top 16 relay teams score points in the meet.

The Polar Bears will return home on Friday to host Findlay in a 6 pm dual meet at the ONU Sports Center Natatorium.