BEREA, OHIO -- This weekend, both the Baldwin-Wallace College women's and men's swimming and diving teams are expected to challenge for an Ohio Athletic Conference title at the OAC Swimming & Diving Championship Meet that will be held at Case Western Reserve University from Thursday, February 12 through Saturday, Feb. 14. To access a complete schedule of events each day, please click here.
Preliminary competition each day will be held at 11:00 a.m. and the finals each day will begin at 6:00 p.m. On Thursday and Friday, the diving finals will take place in the afternoon, immediately following the swimming prelims. John Carroll University is the defending men's and women's champion, but is expected to be challenged by both the B-W men and women. To access results from the meet, please click here.
The Yellow Jacket women will have the best shot at winning an OAC title and the men also have a legitimate shot at a crown. The women finished the regular season at 8-6 overall and were a perfect 4-0 in OAC dual meets, including a win head-to-head against JCU on January 17 in Berea. When B-W won the OAC title in 2002, it also had an undefeated OAC dual meet season. The Yellow Jacket men finished the regular season with a 7-6 overall and 3-1 OAC dual meet record.
B-W returns four individual champions and members of two winning relay teams. Individually, senior Maryanda Yocum (Canal Winchester/ Pickerington) will defend her titles in the 100 and 200-yard backstroke events. Junior Kristen Showalter (Bowling Green) is back to defend her title in the 200-yard butterfly. Two years ago, Showalter also won individual titles in the 200 and 500-yard freestyle events. Junior Keith DeVore (Mans-field/ Ontario) will defend his title in the 200-yard breaststroke.
In relay events, Yocum, sophomore Mary Dye (Twinsburg Senior) and sophomore Lindsay Day (Cuyahoga Falls) return from last year's winning 200-yard freestyle relay team. Senior Carey McDermott (Salem Senior), Showalter, Day and Yocum all return from the winning 400-yard medley relay squad.
In addition to DeVore for the men, keep an eye on freshman D.J. Mosiniak (Toledo/ St. Francis deSales) in the sprint freestyle races, freshman Luke Grilli (Lon-donderry, N.H./ Londonderry) in the backstroke events, senior Scott Roberts (Sandusky Perkins) in the butterfly and freshman Alex de la Pena (Elyria/ Catholic) in the distance freestyle events. For the women, keep an eye on freshman Sara Gombash (Perrysburg/ Toledo Notre Dame) in the butterfly and freshman divers Julie Stancliff (Erie, Pa./ McDowell) and Katie Krzywicki (Brook Park/ Midpark).
This year's OAC Championship Meet is being held at CWRU for the first time. Usually the meet is contested at JCU, but due to construction on its facility, the meet was moved to Case.
Following the OAC Championship Meet, a select group of Yellow Jacket swimmers and divers will compete at the annual CWRU National Qualifying/ Classic Meet at the CWRU Natatorium on February 21 at 1:00 p.m.
FOR MORE B-W SPORTS INFORMATION, please contact B-W Sports Information Director Kevin Ruple by telephone at (440) 826-2327, by FAX machine at (440) 826-2329 or via e-mail at kruple@bw.edu.
FOR MORE INFORMATION on the OAC Swimming and Diving Championships, please call either JCU Sports Information Director Chris Wenzler by telephone at (216) 397-4676, by FAX machine at (216) 397-1806 or via e-mail at cwenzler@jcu.edu. To contact OAC Media Relations Director Julie Work, please call her at (330) 963-0444, FAX her at (330) 963-0459 and you can reach her via e-mail at jwork@oac.org.
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