Junior Mitchell Murphy sets two school records, surpasses NCAA "B" Cut in three events to lead Men's Swimming & Diving on Day 1 of Wooster Invitational

By Tim Glon

WOOSTER — Junior Mitchell Murphy set two school records and surpassed the NCAA "B" Cut in three events to lead the Ohio Northern men's swimming & diving team into second place after the first day of the 3-day Wooster Invitational on Thursday at the Wooster High School Natatorium.

The Polar Bears are second of nine teams with 391 points after five of the 20 events.

Case Western Reserve is first with 419.5 points, NCAA Division II Malone is third with 370.5 points and Division II Gannon (Pa.) is fourth with 314.5 points.

Murphy finished second in the 50 free in :20.86, but set the school record and equalled the NCAA "B" Cut in the prelims with a :20.84 effort.

He broke the previous school record of :20.97 set by Christian Garlock in 2013.

In the first event of the night, Murphy combined with sophomore Eric Chen, freshman Thomas Golba and sophomore Logan Pfeifer to win the 200 free relay in 1:23.26.

That time edged the previous school record of 1:24.41 set by Garlock, Marc Anderson, Drew Keriazes and Anders Samuelson in 2011 and was .04 of a second under the NCAA "B" Cut time of 1:23.30.

In the final event of the day, Murphy joined with freshman Gabe Dauch, freshman Trevor Keriazes and sophomore Jeremy Preston to finish third in the 400 medley relay in 3:24.41, which was nearly seven seconds under the NCAA "B" Cut standard of 3:31.35.

Keriazes also had an outstanding effort in the 200 I.M. winning the event in 1:52.74, a full .51 of a second under the NCAA "B" Cut time of 1:53.25.

In the 500 free, sophomore John Raker touched in ninth place in 4:44.81.

The second day of the three-day meet will be held on Friday with prelims beginning at 10 am and finals at 6 pm.