Women's Swimming and Diving falls at Mount Union

By Tim Glon

ALLIANCE — The Ohio Northern women's swimming and diving team dropped a 173-116 dual meet at Mount Union at the Hammond Natatorium Saturday afternoon.

The Polar Bears fall to 3-4 overall and are 1-2 in Ohio Athletic Conference action, while the Purple raiders improve to 6-1, 2-1.

Senior Molly Wheeler (Sylvania/Northview) won two events to lead Ohio Northern.

She won the 50 free in :26.32 and combined with senior Stacie Melody (Dublin/Jerome), junior Hailee Sautter (Mansfield/Lexington) and senior Stephanie Brookens (Louisville) to win the 400 free relay in 3:54.45.

Freshman Lauren Halle (Chandler, Ariz./Hamilton) and Libby Sartschev (Parma/Normandy) also won two events.

Halle touched first in the 400 I.M. in 4:55.82 and Sartschev won the 1-meter diving with 159.10 points.

"We had a rough day having less than 48 hour to turn around from our training trip to the meet today," ONU head coach Peggy Ewald said. "We left two athletes home due to the flu and had a couple more end up sick while at the meet. We didn't swim poorly but notably tired and down a few athletes hurt the overall scoring. Mount swam well having been back from their trip a week definitely. This is the first dual meet Mount has won against our men in my 13 years with ONU.  It was a big win for them. It will be a different meet by conference with the competition in the OAC rising across the board. That's a good thing for all of us."

The Polar Bears will return to action on Friday night when they host Baldwin Wallace at 6 pm at the ONU Sports Center Natatorium.