Ohio Northern men win 9th consecutive OAC Swimming & Diving Championships crown
By Tim Glon
AKRON — The Ohio Northern men won their ninth consecutive Ohio Athletic Conference Swimming & Diving Championships title Thursday-Saturday at the University of Akron's Ocasek Natatorium.
The Polar Bears finished with 985 points and won 14 of the 20 titles in the meet.
ONU set seven OAC records, 10 school records, two NCAA "A" Cuts and eight NCAA "B" Cuts in the three days of the meet.
Mount Union was second with 749 points, John Carroll was third with 468 points, Wilmington was fourth with 409 points, league newcomer Transylvania (Ky.) was fifth with 237 points and Defiance was sixth with 10 points.
Junior Jordan Breitigam was named the OAC Men's Swimmer of the Year, marking the ninth consecutive year that a Polar Bear swimmer has won the award.
Junior Kyle Rex was named the OAC Men's Diver of the Year after sweeping the diving events.
Breitigam won three individual events and was on three winning relay teams, setting OAC and ONU records and surpassing NCAA qualifying marks in all six events.
He won the 100 fly in :49.21 and the 200 fly in 1:49.08, surpassing the NCAA "A" Cut in both events, qualifying him automatically for the NCAA III Championships in Shenandoah, Tex., March 20-23.
Breitigam also won the 200 I.M. in 1:51.63 and was part of ONU's winning 400 free relay, 200 medley relay and 400 medley relay squads.
Breitigam will enter his senior year as a 10-time OAC champion.
Senior Drew Keriazes won his fourth consecutive OAC title in the 200 breast in an NCAA "B" Cut of 2:06.66 and won the 100 breast for the third time in the last four years in an NCAA "B" Cut :56.77.
Keriazes also surpassed the NCAA "B" Cut in the 200 I.M., finishing second in 1:53.50. He was also part of ONU's winning 200 free relay team that set OAC and ONU records and bettered the NCAA "B" Cut with a time of 1:23.57.
Keriazes was on ONU's winning 400 free relay, 200 medley relay and 400 medley relay teams.
In all, Keriazes won six titles and surpassed seven "B" Cuts and ends his career ranked second all-time at ONU with 19 OAC titles.
Rex swept the 1- and 3-meter diving competitions with scores of 391.75 and 390.00, respectively.
Junior Christian Garlock won the 50 free in :21.09 and set the ONU record with a :20.97 time in the prelims.
Sophomore Spencer Franzoi won the 400 I.M. in 4:12.85 and earned All-Conference accolades in the 200 I.M. by finishing third in 1:58.36, giving ONU a 1-2-3 finish in that event.
Ohio Northern swept all five of the relay events.
Senior Marc Anderson, junior John Beaschler, Keriazes and Garlock won the 200 free relay in 1:23.57, setting OAC and ONU records and surpassing the NCAA "B" Cut.
Garlock, Breitigam, Keriazes and Beaschler won the 400 free relay and set OAC and ONU records and an NCAA "B" Cut by finishing in 3:05.06.
Beaschler, sophomore Chris Hoffman, freshman Jacob Croasdell and Garlock won the 800 free relay in 6:56.61.
Northern won the 200 and 400 medley relays with OAC and ONU record-setting and NCAA "B" Cut times.
Anderson, Keriazes, Breitigam and Garlock won the 200 medley relay in 1:31.05 and Anderson, Keriazes, Breitigam and Beaschler won the 400 medley relay in 3:22.96.
Beaschler and Garlock tied for second in the 100 free to earn All-Conference awards, touching in identical times of :46.52.
Beaschler's prelim time of :46.32 set a new school record in the 100 free. He also earned All-OAC honors in the 50 free, finishing second in :21.36 and in the 200 free, finishing second in 1:43.49.
Hoffman earned All-OAC kudos in the 200 free with a third place finish in 1:44.23 and in the 500 free with a second place finish in 4:44.05.
Croasdell was All-Conference in the two distance free events, finishing second in the 1650 free in 16:25.76 and finishing third in the 500 free in 4:45.08.
Breitigam, Anderson and junior Erik Arent finished 1-2-3 in the 200 fly, marking the third consecutive 1-2-3 finish by the Polar Bears in the event.
Breitigam won his second straight title, finishing in 1:49.93. Anderson was second in 1:56.34 and Arent was third in 1:56.46.
Anderson also finished second in the 100 fly in :50.30 to earn All-OAC honors in the meet.
Sophomore Jason Luthman finished second in 2:09.61 in the 200 breast to earn All-Conference kudos.
Freshman Sean O'Neill grabbed All-OAC honors in the 200 back by finishing third in 1:55.29.
The top three individuals and the top two relay teams in each event earn All-OAC kudos.
The Polar Bears will wrap up their regular season at the Kenyon Last Chance meet next Saturday.
