Ohio Athletic Conference Championships: Day Three

AKRON, Ohio, February 21. OHIO Northern University's men's and women's swimming and diving teams won the 2009 Ohio Athletic Conference Championship Meet this weekend (Thursday-Saturday, February 19-21, 2009) hosted by Baldwin-Wallace College at the University of Akron's Ocasek Natatorium.

The Polar Bear men totaled 303 points to win their fifth consecutive OAC crown. They were followed by Baldwin-Wallace (202) in second place, John Carroll University (164) in third, Mount Union College (121) in fourth and Wilmington College (59) in fifth.

The Polar Bear women totaled 310 points to win their second OAC title in the last three seasons. They were followed by John Carroll (214.5) in second place, Mount Union (187) in third, Wilmington (82.5) in fourth and Baldwin-Wallace (57) in fifth.

On day three, ONU's Michael Schultz garnered his third individual All-OAC accolade and sixth overall with his first place finish in the 1,650-yard freestyle in an OAC and Ocasek Natatorium-record time of 15:45.82, which qualifies him for the "A" cut of the national meet. Schultz also was a member of the 400-yard individual medley winning relay team. He teamed with Brett Kuhn, Anders Samuelson and Garrett Dauch to post an OAC-record time 3:01.17.

Ryan Bender and Dauch also picked up All-OAC honors for ONU with first place (1:57.27) and third place (1:58.20) finishes, respectively, in the 200-yard backstroke. Bender's time was just .03 seconds off the conference record. Sarah Fiffick, Hannah Bukowy,

ONU's Michelle Eggers and Katherine Moore also finished in first place during the final day of action. Fiffick won the 100-yard freestyle in 54.37, Bukowy finished the 200-yard breaststroke in 2:29.71, Eggers took the 1,650-yard freestyle in 18:04.16, and Moore won the 100-yard butterfly in a time of 2:13.98. Jillian Huber and Alison Garbash teamed with Eggers and Fiffick to swim the 400-meter individual medley in an OAC-record time of 3:39.90.

Samantha Mossmann earned All-OAC mention for JCU by winning the 200-yard backstroke in 2:11.20, just .25 seconds off of record pace. Alex Vereshchagin was just 0.35 seconds away from breaking the conference record in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 46.87, but still took first place.

B-W's Todd Richert (North Royalton) won the one-meter dive for the second consecutive year with 495.15 points and nationally qualified for both the one and three-meter dives.

Purple Raider Mary Vallinger won the women's three-meter dive with 438.80 points, nationally qualifying her, and she was followed by teammate Samantha Tecca with 331.90 points.

John Creech of Wilmington was the only men's winner for the Quakers as he won the 200-yard butterfly in 1:55.23.

ONU head coach Peggy Ewald swept coach of the year honors as she was named both men's and women's coach of the year. ONU also swept the swimming honors with Shultz being named the Men's Swimmer of the Year and Eggers named as the Women's Swimmer of the Year. Men's Diver of the Year was given to Richert and George Chesney, while Vallinger took women's diving honors.

Special thanks to the Ohio Athletic Conference for contributing this report.

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