Men's Swimming and Diving defeats Defiance and NCAA Division II Findlay in Tri-Match
By Ashley Birchmeier
ADA — The men's swimming and diving team defeated Defiance 178-9, and Division II opponent Findlay 122-83 Friday evening in a tr-match at the ONU Sports Center.
The Polar Bears improve to 4-1 overall and 3-0 in the Ohio Athletic Conference.
Ohio Northern claimed five of the 11 individual events.
The team of freshman Ian Simpson, senior Jason Luthman, sophomore Jeremy Preston, and sophomore Eric Chen won the 200 relay with a time of 1:38.95.
The Polar Bears also claimed a first place finish in the 1,000 free from freshman Trevor Keriazes with a time of 10:15.05.
Ohio Northern took first second and third in the 50 free as sophomore Logan Pfeifer won the event with a time of :22.18, followed by junior Mitchell Murphy :22.33 in second, and freshman Thomas Golba in third with a time of :22.74.
Freshman Gabe Dauch led ONU in the 200 back as he claimed first place with a time of 2:04.77.
ONU closed out the meet on a high note as the combination of Chen, Golba, Murphy, and Pfeifer won the 200 free relay with a time of 1:27.20.
"Going into this meet we knew we needed full commitment of each swimmer to be able to narrow the gap in front of the ladies and push beyond on the men's. We did that with great attitudes and effort," said head coach Peggy Ewald. "Swimming against NCAA D II teams presents a challenge, but we didn't back down. We swam well against strong teams. I'm looking forward to putting more work in over the three weeks remaining before our big mid-season meet."
The Polar Bears will return to action on Saturday, Nov. 15 when they host Wittenberg and Oberlin in a tri-match at the ONU Sports Center, Natatorium.
