Men's Swimming and Diving improves to 2-0 with 186-112 victory over John Carroll

By Thomas McArdle

ADA — The Ohio Northern men's swimming and diving team improved to 2-0 with a 186-112 victory over John Carroll Saturday afternoon at the Faculty Appreciation Meet at the ONU Sports Center.

The Polar Bears improve to 2-0 overall and 2-0 in the Ohio Athletic Conference, while the Blue Streaks fall to 0-2, 0-1.

Freshman Pete He and sophomore Gabe Dauch each won two events to lead ONU.

He won the 200-yard freestyle in 1:46.20 and in the 100-yard butterfly in 53.76. 

Dauch also took two first place finishes, one in the 100-yard backstroke in 55.10 and the other in the 200-yard backstroke in 2:03.28.

"Going back to back meets is a tough schedule this early in the season but one that provides us a foundation to build our stamina for a championship format," ONU head coach Peggy Ewald said. "We had a quick turn around from Wilmington last night and within 12 hours of returning to campus going up against JCU. With such a young team on both the men and women's side, we have plenty to work on but we got to see some of the lessons implemented today. We can take that into practice next week and prepare for what's next. We have more depth to work with on the men's side that give us flexibility this early in the season to mix it up and find our niches."

Additional event winners for the Polar Bears were freshman Bryant Hagemann in the 1000-yard freestyle in 10:28.21, sophomore Trevor Keriazes in the 100-yard breaststroke in 59.91, junior John Raker in the 200-yard butterfly in 2:00.85, junior Logan Pfeifer in the 50-yard freestyle in 22.31, and junior Eric Chen in the 100-yard freestyle in 48.22.

The ONU relay team of Dauch, Keriazes, He, and Pfeifer won the 400-yard medley relay in 3:34.84 while the team of He, senior Mitchell Murphy, Chen, and Pfeifer won the 400-yard freestyle relay in 3:15.37. 

Northern will return to the pool Friday as they compete in Day 1 of the Calvin (Mich.) Invitational at 6 pm.