AKRON, Ohio – The Baldwin Wallace University women's swimming and diving team stands in fiourth place after the first day of competition at the Ohio Athletic Conference Championships hosted by the University of Mount Union in the Ocasek Natatorium on the campus of the University of Akron.

BW is fourth of seven teams with 113 points.   John Carroll University leads after the first day with 225 points. 

The Yellow Jackets were led by freshmen freestylers Allie Thorson (Amherst/Marion Steele) and Olivia Jacob (Canton/McKinley) as the duo placed in the top five of the 500-yard freestyle.   Thorson finished fourth in a career-best time of 5:16.73 and Jacob was fifth in a career-best time of 5:17.75

In addition, junior freestyler Lena Kortis (Canton/Massillon Jackson) was ninth in the 50-yard freestyle in a career-best time of 25.22 seconds. Freshman Erika Nockengost (Cuyahoga Falls) took 10th in the 200-yard individual medley in a career-best time of 2:14.85.

In relay action, the 200-yard freestyle team of Kortis, sophomore Claire Onchuck (Darien, Ill. /Hinsdale South), junior Courtney Severns (Bucyrus) and freshman Jenna Ball (Salamanca, N.Y.) took sixth in a season-best time of 1:42.82.  The 400-yard medley relay unit of junior freestyler Jordyn Miller (Ann Arbor, Mich./Pioneer), freshman freestyler Ellie Clymer (Independence), Nockengost and Kortis finished fourth in a season-best time of 4:07.59

BW is back in action for the second day of the OAC Championships on Friday, February 17.  Preliminary action will begin at 10 a.m. and the finals will be contested at 6 p.m.   The OAC Championships will be contested on Saturday, February 18.