John Raker wins title in 500 free to lead Men's Swimming & Diving into first place after Day 1 of OAC Championships
By Tim Glon
AKRON -- Freshman John Raker won the 500 free title to lead the Ohio Northern men's swimming & diving team on the first day of the three-day Ohio Athletic Conference Championships on Thursday at the University of Akron's Ocasek Natatorium.
The Polar Bears lead the 7-team, three-day championships with 252 points after five of 20 events.
Mount Union is second with 147.5 points, John Carroll is third with 132 points and Wilmington is fourth 126.5 points.
Raker won the 500 free in 4:39.06 and junior Christopher Hoffman finished third in the event in 4:43.32 to earn All-OAC honors.
Ohio Northern won OAC crowns in both of the relay events.
Junior Brian Heilbronner, junior Jason Luthman, freshman Eric Chen and senior John Beaschler started the night off by winning the 200 free relay in 1:24.74.
Beaschler, Heilbronner, Chen and freshman Logan Pfeifer ended the night by winning the 400 medley relay in 3:27.00.
Beaschler also earned All-Conference honors with a third place finish in the 50 free in :21.37.
The Polar Bears placed five swimmers in the top six positions in the 200 I.M.
Senior All-American Jordan Breitigam and Chen earned All-OAC kudos by finishing 2-3 in 1:53.30 and 1:56.76, respectively.
Breitigam's 1:53.20 time also surpassed the NCAA "B" qualifying standard.
The top three finishers in the individual events and the top two relay teams in each of the 20 events earn All-Conference honors.
Day 2 will get underway on Friday with prelims at 11 am and finals at 6 pm.