Men's Swimming & Diving clinches 8th consecutive title on Day 3 of OAC Championships

The No. 11-ranked Ohio Northern men's swimming and diving team won its eighth consecutive title by winning four events on the third and final day of the 2012 Ohio Athletic Conference Championships Thursday night at the University of Akron's Ocasek Natatorium.

ONU won the title with 1,036 points. John Carroll was second with 693 points, Mount Union was third with 528, Baldwin-Wallace was fourth with 311, Wilmington was fifth with 277 and OAC newcomer Defiance was sixth with 51 points.

Northern won 15 of the 20 events in the championships.

The Polar Bears won their eighth consecutive OAC Championships title under eighth-year head coach Peggy Ewald.

Ohio Northern senior Michael Schultz was named the OAC Men's Swimmer of the Year for the fourth time in his career.

Schultz won his fourth OAC title in the 1650 free and completed his 2012 sweep of the distance events in the process.

He lapped the field twice, leading ONU to a 1-2-3 finish, and touched in an NCAA "B" Cut time of 15:56.94. Earlier in the week, Schultz also won the 200 and 500 free events, setting NCAA "B" Cuts in both events.

ONU senior Nick Meyer was named the OAC Diver of the Year after sweeping the diving events on the weekend. On Saturday, Meyer won the 1-meter diving with a score of 455.35.

The Polar Bears finished 1-2-3 in the 1650 free as Northern freshman Chris Hoffman was second in 16:53.53 and ONU junior Jeff Zeleznik was third in 17:03.75.

Ohio Northern sophomore Jordan Breitigam shattered a 32-year old OAC record in the 200 fly on Saturday, winning the event in 1:50.43. He broke the previous mark of 1:54.31, set by Tim Glasser of Kenyon in 1980, by 3.88 seconds.

His time of 1:50.43 was an NCAA "B" Cut and just missed the "A" Cut by .04 of a second. He shattered the ONU record as well, surpassing that by 5.28 seconds.

In the 200 back, freshman Brian Heilbronner and junior Max McClary each earned All-Conference honors by finishing second and third in 1:56.78 and 1:59.37, respectively.

Junior Drew Keriazes set OAC and ONU records and surpassed the NCAA "B" Cut in 2:06.05 to win the 200 breast for the third consecutive year.

Freshman teammate Spencer Franzoi earned All-OAC honors with a second place finish in 2:11.78.

Teammates sophomore Erik Arent and junior Marc Anderson made it a 1-2-3 sweep by finishing in 1:55.48 and 1:55.98, respectively.