Women's Swimming & Diving gunning for its seventh consecutive league crown at this weekend's 2015 OAC Championships
By Tim Glon
ADA — The Ohio Northern women's swimming and diving team will be gunning for its seventh Ohio Athletic Conference Championships title Thursday-Saturday at the University of Akron's Ocasek Natatorium.
The Polar Bears scored 813 points to win last year's crown, edging Mount Union (672) and John Carroll (468) in the 7-team field.
This year, ONU tied for second in the OAC Regular Season standings with Mount Union with 3-1 records, while JCU won the title with a 5-0 mark.
Transylvania (Ky.) returns a strong team that finished just one point behind JCU a year ago, which sets up what may be a four-team battle for the crown.
OAC Championships Meet Notes: The Polar Bears will travel to University of Akron's Ocasek Natatorium for the 2015 OAC Championships Thursday-Saturday ... There will be 20 events over 3 days ... Prelims will begin at 11 am each day with the finals following at 6 pm Thursday and Friday and at 5:45 pm on Saturday ... The Polar Bears are gunning for their seventh consecutive OAC Championships title and their eighth title overall ... Juniors Lindsey Inkrott and Allison Lohnes enter the meet with 9 and 7 OAC Championships crowns, respectively, to their credit ... Inkrott is the defending OAC Champion in the 200 and is the 2-time champion in the 200 back ... Lohnes edged Inkrott in the 200 back a year ago and also won the 200 I.M. a year ago ... Sophomore Jill Chapman is a 4-time OAC Champion and has the fastest time in the OAC with school-record efforts in both the 50 and 100 free this season ... Sophomore Emily Uhrin is the top seed in the 200 free ... Northern swept the five relay events last season and has the top times entering the meet in four of the five relays this season ... Thus far this season, Jill Chapman is ranked third nationally in the 50-yard free with a school record time of :23.22, which is under the NCAA "B" Cut ... She is also ranked 51st in the 100 free in a school record :52.27 ... The 200 free relay team is ranked 19th nationally in a "B" Cut time of 1:35.89 ... The NCAA III Swimming & Diving Championships are slated for March 18-21 in Shenandoah, Tex.
Schedule of Events
Distances in Yards
Thursday, Feb. 19
1. 200 Free Relay
2. 500 Free
3. 200 I.M.
4. 250 Free
5. 400 Medley Relay
Friday, Feb. 20
6. 200 Medley Relay
7. 400 I.M.
8. 100 Fly
9. 200 Free
10. 100 Breast
11. 100 Back
12. Diving - 3-M Women / 1-M Men
13. 800 Free Relay
Saturday, Feb. 21
14. 1650 Free
15. 200 Back
16. 100 Free
17. 200 Breast
18. 200 Fly
19. Diving - 3-M Women / 1-M Men
20. 400 Free Relay
ONU head coach Peggy Ewald: Ewald in her 11th season at ONU and the program's all-time winningest coach with a 71-59 women's dual meet record, a winning percentage of .546. She has been named OAC Women's Coach of the Year five times and had guided the Polar Bear women to seven OAC Championships crowns, including the last six in a row, and nine OAC Regular Season titles in her previous 10 seasons.