Men's Swimming & Diving wins 200 medley relay on second day of Wooster Invitational

By Tim Glon

WOOSTER — The Ohio Northern men's swimming & diving team won the 200 medley relay to highlight the second day of the three-day Wooster Invitational on Friday at the Wooster High School Natatorium and Timken Natatorium.

After 13 of the 20 events, the Polar Bears are fourth of nine teams with 715 points. 

Case Western Reserve is in first place with 1230 points, Westminster (Pa.) is second with 845.5 points and Gannon (Pa.) is third with 787 points.

Sophomore Nolan Huey (Fort Collins, Colo./Fossil Ridge), juniors Anthony Ferrell (Canton/Glen Oak) and Pete He (Mason) and senior Ian Simpson (Strongsville) led Ohio Northern by winning the 200 medley relay in 1:34.20.

Huey, Ferrell, He, and senior Braden Kuhn (Tiffin/Columbian) also posted second place finishes individually.

Huey was second in the 400 I.M. in 4:08.60, He was second in the 100 fly in :50.86 and Kuhn was second in the 3-meter diving with 387.45 points.

Ferrell led an impressive 2-6-7 Polar Bear finish in the 100 breast with a second place finish in :58.87.

Senior Connor Cassera (Westhampton, N.Y./Westhampton Beach) was sixth in :59.61 and junior Thomas Golba (Dayton/Alter) was seventh in 1:00.11.

Simpson also posted a fifth place finish in th 100 back in :52.82.

"We came away today adding to the success of yesterday," ONU head coach Peggy Ewald said. "The Wooster Invitational is always a test of what we've accomplished midseason and what has to be executed in the second half to end the season where we want to be.

"We had 36 Prelim individual swims with 35 of those posting either season best or lifetime best races. Tonight, we got 24 of those individual swims back into finals. We've posted 20 Lifetime best so far is is more than double of last season. It's been a fun meet to watch how the athletes are integrating the work from practices into their racing mindset. Our attitude and effort has been amazing thus far, it's been extremely productive competition. Day 3 will be important to stay the course, focus on what we can do to improve and continue to put our minds to stepping up to the challenges of tough competition."

The third and final day will be on Saturday with the prelims at 10 am and finals at 5 pm. Diving events will take place each day at Timken Natatorium with swimming events at Wooster High School.