BEREA, Ohio – The Baldwin Wallace University women's swimming and diving team is looking to make bigger waves in the Ohio Athletic Conference in the 2017-18 season.
Seventh-year head coach Laura Wolff-Demaline returns 13 letterwinners and three All-OAC performers from last year's squad that finished fifth at the 2017 OAC Championships.
On the women's side, junior Academic All-OAC stroker Sarah Krupp (Williamsville, N.Y./Williamsville South) and sophomores Erika Nockengost (Cuyahoga Falls) and Allie Thorson (Amherst/Marion Steele) return to the team as All-OAC performers. Krupp earned her All-OAC honor as a freshman and still holds the school record in the 400-yard individual medley while Nockengost and Thorson each earned their All-OAC honors with third place finishes at the 2017 OAC Championships in the 100-yard butterfly and 200-yard freestyle, respectively.
Members of the school-record 200-yard freestyle relay and 800-yard freestyle relay teams also return this season. Seniors Lena Kortis (Canton/Massillon Perry) and Courtney Severns (Bucyrus) and junior Claire Onchuck (Darien, Ill./Hinsdale South) will look to reset the 200 free relay record this season. Senior Academic All-OAC freestyler Jordyn Miller (Ann Arbor, Mich./Pioneer) joins Nockengost and Thorson as returning members of the 800-yard freestyle relay team that broke the school record at the 2017 OAC Championships.
Senior Nicole Gladish (Fairview Park/Fairview) and junior Rebecca Johnson (Indianapolis, Ind./Lawrence Central) round out the returning upperclassmen while sophomores Jenna Ball (Salamanca, N.Y./Salamanca), Ellie Clymer (Independence), Shari Gordnier (Centerville/Dayton Regional Stem), Alyssa Mahle (Aurora), Alyssa Peto (Port Clinton) and Olivia Plunkett (Haddonfield, N.J.) will all look to improve on the times they set as freshmen.
Eight new faces join the team as Makayla Eaton (Mansfield/Madison), Lauren Franz (Canton/GlenOak), Sarah Gattis (Berea/New Albany), Colleen Kost (Rocky River/Fairview), Marissa Kural (LaGrange, Ill./Lyons Township), Star Lodwick (Mansfield/Madison), Lauren Martello (Huron/Sandusky) and Shatiya Walker (Cleveland/Early College) will all look to make an immediate impact in the pool this winter.
BW will open up the 2017-18 season at home when the Yellow Jackets host non-conference foe Ohio Wesleyan University on Friday, Oct. 20, at 6 p.m. inside the BW Natatorium in the Lou Higgins Center. OAC action will open up a day later when Wilmington College travels up to Berea for a 1 p.m. meet on Saturday, Oct. 21 inside the BW Natatorium.
