Halle, Taylor finish 1-2 in the 400 I.M., lead Women's Swimming & Diving on day 2 of Wooster Invitational

By Tim Glon

WOOSTER — Sophomore Lauren Halle (Chandler, Ariz./Hamilton) and freshman Marissa Taylor (Granite Falls, N.C./South Caldwell) finished 1-2 in the 400 I.M. to lead the Ohio Northern women's swimming & diving team on the second day of the three-day Wooster Invitational on Friday at the Wooster High School Natatorium and Timken Natatorium.

The Polar Bears are sixth of 11 teams with 475 points after 13 of 20 events. 

Case Western Reserve is in first place with 1273.5 points, Gannon (Pa.) is second with 849 points and Wooster is third with 786 points.

Halle won the 400 I.M. in 4:40.77 and Taylor was right behind in second in 4:41.09.

Senior Sydney Veon (Riverside, Ill./Riverside-Brookfield) also had a great swim, placing second in the 100 breast in 1:06.75.

Freshman Claire Kaiding (Waterford, Mich./Brandon) was sixth in the 1-meter diving with 306.80 points and junior Kierra Watson (Brownsburg, Ind.) was 14th in the 100 back in 1:01.99 for Ohio Northern.

"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.