Eric Chen, Logan Pfeifer lead No. 30 men's Swimming and Diving in dual meet at Mount Union

By Tim Glon

ALLIANCE — The No. 30-ranked Ohio Northern men's swimming and diving team fell 160-123 at Mount Union at the Hammond Natatorium Saturday afternoon.

The Polar Bears fall to 4-3 overall and are 1-2 in Ohio Athletic Conference action, while the Purple raiders improve to 7-0, 3-0.

Seniors Eric Chen (Mason) and Logan Pfeifer (Bucyrus/Colonel Crawford) each won twice to lead ONU.

Chen won the 100 free in :48.56 and Pfeifer won the 50 free in :22.34.

The pair then combined with juniors Thomas Golba (Kettering/Archbishop Alter) and Ian Simpson (Strongsville) to win the 400 free relay in 3:16.85.

Sophomore Anthony Ferrell (Canton/Glen Oak) and freshman Nolan Huey (Fort Collins, Colo./Fossil Ridge) also won events for ONU.

Ferrell won the 100 breast in 1:01.67 and Huey touched first in the 400 I.M. in 4:21.44.

"We had a rough day having less than 48 hour to turn around from our training trip to the meet today," ONU head coach Peggy Ewald said. "We left two athletes home due to the flu and had a couple more end up sick while at the meet. We didn't swim poorly but notably tired and down a few athletes hurt the overall scoring. Mount swam well having been back from their trip a week definitely. This is the first dual meet Mount has won against our men in my 13 years with ONU.  It was a big win for them. It will be a different meet by conference with the competition in the OAC rising across the board. That's a good thing for all of us."

The Polar Bears will return to action on Friday night when they host Baldwin Wallace at 6 pm at the ONU Sports Center Natatorium.