By: Athletic Communications Student-Assistant Paige Phillips '23
WILMINGTON Ohio – The Baldwin Wallace University Women's swimming and diving team closes out the 2021 regular season with a loss to Wilmington College by a final score of 114-116 in an OAC dual meet inside the Wilmington Natatorium.
BW (0-4, 0-4 OAC) was led by junior All-OAC freestyler Bella Ratino (Mentor /Hawken) as she won both the 800-meter freestyle and the 400-meter freestyle in times of 10:01.73 and 4:51.85. Freshman stroker Tia Reed (Bluffton, S.C.) won both the 50-meter breaststroke and the 100-meter breaststroke in times of 38.89 and 1:22.01. Ratino also finished second in the 100-meter backstroke with a time of 1:12.92 and Reed finished second in 100-meter IM in a time of 1:22.17.
Also bringing home runner-up finishes was freshman freestyler Lauren Slife (Westfield Center /Cloverleaf) who took second in the 100-meter butterfly in a time of 1:17.89 and second in the 100-meter freestyle in a time of 1:06.25. Slife also finished third in the 50-meter butterfly in a time of 33.09. Junior All-OAC freestyler Kayla McClintock (Venetia, Pa. /Peters Township) finished second in the 800-meter freestyle with a time of 10:26.07 and second in the 400-meter freestyle in a time of 5:07.39. Sophomore All-OAC freestyler Julia Newbould (Strongsville) earned second places in the 200-meter freestyle in a time of 2:29.47 and the 50-meter freestyle in a time of 29.75. Also earning a second-place finish was sophomore freestyler Aubrey Syron (Dayton /Archbishop Alter) in the 50-meter backstroke in a time of 34.75.
Syron also placed third in the 100-meter butterfly in a time of 1:18.96 and third in the 100-meter backstroke in a time of 1:17.79. Slife took third in the 50-meter butterfly in a time of 33.99. Also earning a third-place finish was McClintock in the 100-meter IM in a time of 1:22.17.
In relay action, 200-meter medley team of Ratino, Reed, Syron, and Newbould earned a first-place finish with a time of 2:13.50. The 200-meter freestyle relay team were the runners-up in a time of 2:08.62.
The Yellow Jackets are back in action at the three-day Ohio Athletic Conference Championships on Thursday-Saturday, March 25-27 at the Spire Institute in Geneva, Ohio. Preliminary action begins each day at 10 a.m. with finals to be held each night at 6 p.m