AKRON — The Ohio Northern men's swimming and diving team won the 2011 Ohio Athletic Conference championships Saturday night at the University of Akron's Ocasek Natatorium.
The Polar Bears won their seventh consecutive title under seventh-year head coach Peggy Ewald.
Northern finished the three-day meet with 339 points. John Carroll was second with 202, Baldwin-Wallace was third with 148, Mount Union was fourth with 130 and Wilmington was fifth with 46.
ONU won three of the seven events on Saturday night and 11 of the 20 events in the championships overall.
Northern also set three OAC records and eight ONU records during the championships.
Sophomore Andrew Keriazes was named the OAC Men's Swimmer of the Year.
Head coach Peggy Ewald and assistant coaches Jessica Ewald and Sami Phillips were named the OAC Women's Coaching Staff of the Year.
On Saturday, juniors Ryan Bender and Joey Bechtel finished 1-2 in the 200 back.
Bender won the race for the third consecutive season, touching in 1:55.02, while Bechtel also earned All-OAC kudos in the event, finishing second in 1:57.93.
Keriazes and junior Andy Garlock finished 1-2 in the 200 breast, as Keriazes won in 2:09.49 to claim his second consecutive title and Garlock was second in 2:13.41.
"This was a great meet," Ewald said. "Our team worked very hard for this championship. We fought through quite a bit of adversity and had many, many outstanding performances. The OAC has gotten faster across the board and that's a good thing. I am very proud of our team this weekend."
Freshman Erik Arent, sophomore Marc Anderson and senior Nick Swint finished 1-2-3 in the 200 fly.
Arent shattered the ONU record by nearly three seconds, winning in 1:55.71. Anderson was second in 1:58.28 and Swint was third in 1:58.80.
Senior Casey Davis earned All-Conference honors in the 1650 free for the first time in his career in the event, finishing second in 16:38.43.
Junior Anders Samuelson picked up All-OAC honors in the 100 free for the third consecutive season, finishing third in a school record :46.92.
This marks his third straight third place finish in the event.
Sophomore Albert Schmidt and junior Nick Meyer earned All-OAC honors in the 1-meter diving event.
Schmidt finished second with 421.40 points and Meyer was third with 408.00 points.
In the final event of the championships, freshman John beaschler, Bender, Anderson and Samuelson earned All-OAC honors by finishing second int he 400 free relay in 3:09.15.
The Polar Bears will now wait until the NCAA Championships selections are announced to see if any swimmers will be competing at the national championships.
