AKRON- The Wilmington College men's swimming team completed the Ohio Athletic Conference Swimming Championship, and their season, with a finals session Saturday evening. To be eligible to swim in a finals session, a swimmer must post one of the top sixteen times in the AM prelims session. The top eight times swim in a championship heat, and the bottom eight in a consolation heat. Consolation heat swimmers are not eligible for the top eight places, even if their time is worthy.
Saturday's finals consisted of: a timed final of the 1650-yard freestyle, the 200-yard backstroke, the 100-yard freestyle, the 200-yard breaststroke, the 200-yard butterfly, and the 400-yard freestyle relay. Women's 3-meter and men's 1-meter diving were also contested, though Wilmington fielded no athletes for those events.
The men were in a close race for fourth-place with Baldwin Wallace University, who came into tonight's final session in fifth, just five points behind the Fightin' Quakers. Ultimately, the Fightin' Quakers came out ahead in fourth-place with 369 points.
HOW IT HAPPENED
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The meet opened with the the 1650-yard freestyle. Junior Ben Ball (Gallipolis, OH/Gallia Academy) was the lone Fightin' Quaker to compete in the event. Ball finished 15th in the field, with a time of 19:29.97.
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Senior David Spraul (Cincinnati, OH/Princeton) earned a seventh place finish with his 1:58.54 in the 200-yard backstroke. Sophomore Lawrence Daya (North Canton, OH/Glen Oak) finished just behind, in 15th with a time of 2:07.90.
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Sophomore Andrew Stewart (Wilmington, OH/Clinton-Massie) brought home the highest, individual-place finish for the team this evening, with his fourth-place finish in the 100-yard freestyle (46.75). Senior teammate Brendan Tirado's (Dayton, OH/Oakwood) 47.61 earned seventh, in the same event.
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Four Fightin' Quakers scored in the 200-yard breaststroke. Junior Cody Nash (Kingsburg, CA/Kingsburg) was the first Fightin' Quaker to touch the wall. He completed the eight laps in 2:12.99 and was awarded ninth. Finishing just behind, in 2:14.35 for tenth-place, was freshman Freddie Snowden (Frisco, TX/Lone Star). The next WC swimmer to clock in was freshman Brody Morris (Leesburg, OH/Washington Senior). Morris finished in 2:22.69 for 15th. Just tenths of a second behind (2:22.69 for 16th) was junior Alex Tillapaugh (Wilmington, OH/Wickenburg).
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In the final, individual swimming event of the night, the 200-yard butterfly, junior David Bellus (Upper Marlboro, MD/Northmont) clocked in seventh with a 2:00.81. Senior Erik Spraul (Cincinnati, OH/Princeton) was awarded ninth with his effort of 1:59.51, and sophomore Andrew Haga (Gahanna, OH/Westerville South) earned 11th with a time of 2:03.99.
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E. Spraul, Tirado, D. Spraul, and Stewart joined together to close the meet in record setting fashion with the 400-yard freestyle relay. The quartet finished fourth with a time of 3:08.72, a new WC record by over a second.
HEAD COACH TRIP BREEN QUOTES
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"We had three days of outstanding swimming. It was fun to watch literally everyone swim fast. Today was a great day to end the weekend. The two team records to close the meet (men's and women's 400-yard freestyle relay) were the perfect way to end. We had a lot of fun. I appreciate the hard work of the team and all of the great parent support this season."
