A session of bests for @DubC_Swimming Men

Posted: Feb 16, 2017

AKRON- The Wilmington College men's swimming team completed session one of the 2017 Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) Championship Thursday morning. This three-day championship meet consists of a prelims and finals session each day. From each morning prelims session, the top 16 times advance to the finals session with the top eight times swimming in the championship final heat and the bottom eight times swimming in the consolation final heat. Only final session swims are eligible for points.

Thursday's prelim session consisted of four events: 200-yard freestyle relay, 500-yard freestyle, 200-yard individual medley, 50-yard freestyle, and the 400-yard medley relay and the Fightin' Quakers opened with a bang, as all 14 individual swims were significant season bests.

HOW IT HAPPENED

To open the meet, the relay team of seniors Erik Spraul (Cincinnati, OH/Princeton) and Brendan Tirado (Dayton, OH/Oakwood) and junior Alex Tillapaugh (Wilmington, OH/Wickenburg), and sophomore Andrew Stewart (Wilmington, OH/Clinton-Massie) joined forces for a 200-yard freestyle relay. The quartet finished the race in 1:33.96, which places the team seventh going into tonight's championship final.
In the 500-yard freestyle, senior David Spraul (Cincinnati, OH/Princeton) turned in the top time for the Fightin' Quakers at 4:55.53. Just behind him was junior David Bellus (Upper Marlboro, MD/Northmont) with a 4:56.79. Junior Cody Nash (Kingsburg, CA, Kingsburg) was the next finisher, clocking in at 4:58.58. The three Fightin' Quakers are all qualified for tonight's consolation final heat and are seeded tenth, 11th, and 12th, respectively.
Junior Ben Ball (Gallipolis, OH/Gallia Academy) also competed for WC in the 500 and finished in 5:39.67 for 19th, just barely out of contention for tonight's finals.
E. Spraul was the team's top finisher in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 1:58.01. His time placed him tenth and qualified him for tonight's consolation final. Also qualifying for tonight's consolation final was freshman Freddie Snowden (Frisco, TX/Lone Star) with his sixteenth-place finish this morning (2:05.89).
Sophomore Andrew Haga (Gahanna, OH/Westerville South) and freshman Brody Morris (Leesburg, OH/Washington Senior) also competed in the 200-yard individual medley and clocked in at 2:10.70 for 20th and 2:15.66 for 22nd, respectively.
The Fightin' Quakers had their best finishes of the session in the men's 50-yard freestyle with two championship final qualifiers. Stewart and Tillapaugh finished the race in 21.57 for fifth and 21.77 for seventh, respectively. Both Fightin' Quakers will swim again in tonight's championship heat. Tirado squeaked into tonight's consolation final with his thirteenth-place 22.09.
Also competing for the Fightin' Quakers in the 50-yard freestyle were sophomore Lawrence Daya (North Canton, OH/Glen Oak) (23.71), freshman Jared Shoemaker (Springfield, OH/Shawnee) (24.24), and sophomore Jared Riffle (Gallipolis, OH/Gallia Academy) (27.28). The trio snagged places 26, 27, and 29, respectively.
In the final event of the session, the 400-yard medley relay, the group of Daya, Nash, Haga, and Stewart scored a third-place finish with their time of 3:43.00 and qualified for tonight's championship final.