BEREA, Ohio -- The Baldwin Wallace University
men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams
participated this morning before classes in the ninth annual Ted
Mullin “Leave it in the Pool” Hour of Power Relay for
Pediatric Sarcoma Research.
The Yellow Jackets joined with nearly 8,200 student-athletes from
167 collegiate teams in the “Hour of Power”.
“The swimmers did a combined 780 lengths in the BW Natatorium
between their Brown and Yellow relay teams,” said fourth-year Yellow Jacket Head Coach Laura
Wolff. “ We had a table set up in the
student union this year was to spread the word around our campus
about this prestigious annual event,” added Wolff.
“The team and I am proud announce that all the money raised
will be donated to the Ted Mullin fund.”
The event first started to honor former Carleton (Minn.) College
swimmer Ted Mullin, who passed away in the fall of 2006 from
sarcoma, the Ted Mullin “Hour of Power” Relay has grown
from 15 teams in its first year to 171 teams in 2012 with 8,300
participating athletes who joined forces to honor all those who are
fighting against or have lost the battle to cancer. Over the first
eight years of this event, participants have raised over $500,000
to support research at the University of Chicago into the causes
and treatment of sarcoma, a rare soft-tissue cancer, in young
people.
The event held in each team’s home pool, is a one-hour,
all-out, leave-it-in-the-pool practice consisting of continuous
relays, using any stroke. Wherever possible participating teams
begin and finish the “Hour of Power” workout at the
same time, using their respective and corresponding time zones from
the East Coast to the West Coast. This means thousands of swimmers
will be in the water at the same time in support of the battle
against cancer.
The funds have been used for a variety of projects that evaluate
the genetic basis of sarcomas, the identification of novel markers
of disease diagnosis or progression, and the development of new
small molecule and cell therapies for resistant disease. Each
summer, the University also hosts Ted Mullin Fund scholars,
offering four to five Hour of Power participants an opportunity to
advance their interest in science and cancer biology by spending 10
weeks in a laboratory under the mentorship of a pediatric cancer
researcher within the Section of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, at
the University of Chicago.