No. 37 Men's Swimming & Diving is second of nine teams after first day of Wooster Invitational

By Tim Glon

WOOSTER — The No. 37-ranked Ohio Northern men's swimming and diving team is positioned in second place out of nine teams after the first day of the three-day Wooster Invitational on Thursday at Wooster High School Natatorium.

The Polar Bears have 344.5 points through five of the 20 events.

No. 25-ranked Case Western Reserve is first with 523 points, NCAA Division II No. 42-ranked Gannon (Pa.) is third with 344 points and Westminster (Pa.) is fourth with 314 points.

Just three individual events were held on the first day of the three-day meet.

Sophomore Trevor Keriazes led Ohio Northern with a second place finish in the 200 I.M. in 1:55.17. Senior John Raker also placed high in the event, finishing sixth in 1:57.60.

In the 50 free, the Polar Bears had six swimmers place in the top 24, led by sophomore Thomas Golba in seventh place in :21.48.

Freshman Bryant Hageman led ONU in the 500 free, finishing 19th in 4:50.41.

Junior Eric Chen, Golba, senior Mitchell Murphy and junior Logan Pfeifer were third in the 200 free relay in 1:24.54.

In the final event of the evening, sophomore Gabe Dauch, Keriazes, freshman Pete He and Chen finished fourth in the 400 medley relay in 3:28.23.

Day two of the meet will be Friday with prelims at 10 am and finals at 6 pm and will consist of seven swimming events and one diving event.

Saturday's finals will have six swimming events and the final diving event.

Team Standings

1. #25 Case Western Reserve 523, 2. #37 Ohio Northern 344.5, 3. #42 Gannon (Pa.) 344, 4. Westminster (Pa.) 314, 5. Malone 282.5, 6. Edinboro (Pa.) 264.5, Wooster 153.5, 8. Mount Union 134, 9. Alderson Broaddus (W.Va.) 76.