Chen breaks school record, Keriazes surpasses NCAA "B" Cut to lead Men's Swimming & Diving on final day of Wooster Invitational

By Tim Glon

WOOSTER — Sophomore Eric Chen broke the school record in the 100 free and feshman Trevor Keriazes surpassed the NCAA "B" Cut in the 200 breast to lead the Ohio Northern men's swimming and diving team on the third day of the 3-day Wooster Invitational on Saturday at the Wooster High School Natatorium.

The Polar Bears were second of nine teams with 1198 points in the 20 events.

Case Western Reserve won the team crown with 1645 points, NCAA Division II foe Malone was third with 1065.5 points and Westminster (Pa.) was fourth with 1042.5 points.

Chen topped the school record in the 100 free with a :46.25 effort in the first leg of the 400 free relay. He was .07 of a second faster than the previous mark of 46.32 set by sophomore Logan Pfeifer and John Beaschler.

Chen combined with Keriazes, junior Mitchell Murphy and Pfeifer to finish second in 3:06.33.

Keriazes was second in the 200 breast in 2:04.80, nearly two full seconds below the NCAA"B" Cut standard of 2:06.63.

Senior Jason Luthman also placed eighth in the race in 2:11.75.

Northern had three swimmers place in the top six spots in the 100 free as Chen was third in :46.61, Murphy was fifth in :46.90 and Pfeifer was sixth in :47.02.

Sophomore Jeremy Preston tied for fifth place in the 200 fly in 1:55.45 and junior Zach Martin was seventh in the 1650 free in 17:05.19.

The Polar Bears will return to action Jan. 3 at the Citrus Classic at Mesa, Ariz.