Men's Swimming and Diving defends title in 800 free relay on Day 2 of 2017 OAC Championships
By Tim Glon
AKRON — The 800 free relay team defended its league title, leading the Ohio Northern men on the second day of the 2017 Ohio Athletic Conference Swimming & Diving Championships on Friday at the University of Akron's Ocasek Natatorium.
Freshman Nolan Huey (Fort Collins, Colo./Fossil Ridge), senior Logan Pfeifer (Bucyrus/Colonel Crawford), sophomore Pete He (Mason) and senior Eric Chen (Mason) won the 800 free relay by .53 of a second, finishing in 6:58.36.
Trailing by more than a second entering the final leg, Chen rallied the Polar Bears with a 1:42.15 split to the victory.
Chen also earned All-Conference honors with a second place finish in the 200 free in 1:42.25. It is Chen's third All-OAC honor in the event after finishing second last year and third in 2015.
Huey and senior John Raker (Labanon/Lakota West) earned All-Conference accolades in the 400 I.M.
Huey finished second in 4:09.25 and Raker was third in 4:12.28.
The 200 medley relay team of junior Ian Simpson (Strongsville), sophomore Anthony Ferrell (Canton/Glen Oak), He and Pfeifer earned All-Conference accolades with a second place finish in 1:33.96.
The Polar Bears are in second place out of seven teams with 467 points through 13 of the 20 events.
John Carroll is in first place with 550 points, Mount Union is third with 387 and Wilmington is fourth with 249.
The top three finishers in each individual event and the top two relay teams earn All-Conference honors.
The Polar Bears are gunning for their 13th consecutive OAC Championships crown under 13th-year head coach Peggy Ewald.
The final of the three-day championships is Saturday with prelims at 10 am and finals at 5:30 pm.
