WESTERVILLE, Ohio - The Wilmington College men's soccer team has been picked to finish fourth in the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) as the league revealed its annual Preseason Coaches Poll on Thursday morning.
Defending champion John Carroll University was picked as the conference favorite having won the conference a season ago and earned six first-place votes. Ohio Northern University was two points behind and also earned four first-place votes. Otterbein University, Wilmington, the University of Mount Union and Capital University round out those picked to qualify for the six-team OAC Tournament. The complete poll is listed below:
| Place | School | Points (1st) | ||
| 1 | John Carroll | 77 (6) | ||
| 2 | Ohio Northern | 75 (4) | ||
| 3 | Otterbein | 65 | ||
| 4 | Wilmington | 51 | ||
| 5 | Mount Union | 50 | ||
| 6 | Capital | 47 | ||
| 7 | Marietta | 31 | ||
| 8 | Baldwin Wallace | 28 | ||
| 9 | Muskingum | 17 | ||
| 10 | Heidelberg | 9 |
New to this year's OAC Polls are players to watch, and Sakarias Bahamondez and Brady Vilvens are on the list for Wilmington. Vilvens, also a member of the track & field team and a national champion high jumper, is looking to build up a sophomore campaign that saw him score two goals and finish second in the team in assists with six. Bahamondez netted five goals with two of them coming in postseason play. He broke the game open against Mount Union with a missle from 35 yards out and tied the game with a goal at ONU in the semifinals.
The Quakers finished the 2022 season with a 12-6-3 overall record and a fourth-place finish in the conference. After dispatching Mount Union 4-0 in an OAC Tournament quarterfinal, WC came from a goal down to upset Ohio Northern 2-1 and earn the program's first appearance in the OAC Tournament title game in nearly two decades. Wilmington opens its 2023 campaign, the second for Head Coach Cory Bucur, at DePauw University on Sept. 1.
