Men's Swimming & Diving wins 15 of 16 events in 216-80 victory over John Carroll

By Tim Glon

ADA — The Ohio Northern men's swimming and diving team won 15-of-16 events in a 216-80 victory over John Carroll on Saturday afternoon at the ONU Sports Center.

The Polar Bears improve to 2-0 overall and are 2-0 in Ohio Athletic Conference action, while the Blue Streaks improve to 3-1, 2-0.

With the victory, ONU extends its OAC home dual meet winning streak to 30 matches.

"We went into this meet with an attitude of staying the course as we went up against the largest team in the conference and 2017 Champions," ONU head coach Peggy Ewald said. "We wanted to swim to our potential at a high training load week. We brought energy and focus today that we haven't seen within the team in a couple of years. I asked them to got for it, find a way to get to the wall first, even if we were out numbered. We needed to mix the lineup and figure out where our freshman could fill some of the gaps. From the start, the team rose to the expectation and kept it through the meet. It was fun watching as they worked on being the best version they could be today.

"We have plenty to work on, but so far what we have worked to perform better was executed. It's going to be an exciting season with hills and valley's but if we continue to swim with this much energy and focus on the here and now, I believe there will be an opportunity at the conference championships to be one of the best teams I've coached."

Sophomore Nolan Huey (Fort Collins, Colo./Fossil Ridge) led Ohio Northern with four victories on the day.

Individually, he won the 100 back in :53.81, the 200 back in 2:01.99 and the 400 I.M. in 4:28.56.

He also combined with junior Thomas Golba (Dayton/Alter), junior Pete He (Mason) and senior Ian Simpson (Strongsville) to win the 400 free relay in 3:18.04.

Pete He swept the fly events, winning the 100 fly in :52.93 and the 200 fly in 1:59.11.

Simpson, Ferrell, freshman Zach Ayres (Chillicothe) and junior Justin Chapman (Springboro) won the 200 medley relay in 1:38.13.

Simpson also won the 100 free in :49.10.

Juniors Anthony Ferrell (Canton/Glen Oak) and Braden Kuhn (Tiffin/Columbian) and freshman Ryan Mow (Macomb, Mich./Dakota) all won two events each.

Ferrell won the 100 breast in :59.95 and the 200 breast in 2:16.61, Kuhn won the 1-meter diving (266.25 points) and the 3-meter diving (256.05 points) and Mow won the 1000 free in 10:19.57 and the 500 free in 5:00.54.

"This group of young men are fun to work with," Ewald said. "We have a team saying this season, there is no brown sugar...meaning the feedback will be direct and action oriented. No complaints just contribution. Make change or stay the same. If you want to climb back up that hill to a conference championship, it takes more than you have given in the past. They had fun this weekend, racing Friday and turning around and moving forward down the path. Next week we keep the grind going and challenge one last dual meet before we go into the mid season invite at Wooster. It will be yet another test of their attitude and effort." 

The Polar Bears will return to action Friday with a meet at Wittenberg.