BEREA, OHIO – Second-year Baldwin Wallace University Men's Swimming and Diving Coach Laura Wolff will look to continue to build her program into a perennial Ohio Athletic Conference championship contender this winter. She returns a solid corps of veterans and has recruited a group of newcomers who will make the Yellow Jackets better in 2012-2013.
The teams open the schedule this Friday (October 26) at Ohio Wesleyan University and open the OAC schedule on Saturday (Oct. 27) at Wilmington College.
"In terms of academics and athletics, we [the coaching staff] believe in the philosophy of the student-athlete excelling in the classroom, in the pool, on campus and in the community," said Wolff. "We believe that academics come first at a Division III school, and we also know that we can make swimming and diving at Baldwin Wallace a great experience for each of our student-athletes."
The Yellow Jacket men's team returns seven lettermen from last season's squad.
Leading the men's team this season is senior diver Tony Tijerina (Napoleon), senior freestyler Matt Zych (Des Plaines, Ill./Maine West) and junior Patrick Donohoe (Columbus/Bishop Watterson). Tijerina, Zych and Donohoe each have their names in the BW record books and will look to final again at this year's OAC Championship Meet.
In addition to these strong performers, Wolff returns seniors David Blackett (Tallmadge) and Nathan Brown (Columbia Station/Olmsted Falls) and sophomores Bryan Gerber (Sagamore Hills/Nordonia) and Ronny Woodburn (Ashtabula/ Edgewood).
The freshmen and transfers will be key. The transfers are juniors Bryan Hitch (Lakewood) and Nikolaus Williams (Warren/Harding) and the freshmen are Justin Allison (Napoleon), Steven Curry (Bloomfield Hills, Mich./Wylie E. Groves), Charles Gates (Tallmadge), Henry Hammond (Cleveland Heights), Nathan Onchuck (Darien, Ill./Hinsdale South), Charles Peppers (Circleville), Paul Rockocy (North Royalton) and Sean Rudolph Jr. (Warrensville Heights).
"We are committed to build this team into an OAC title contender and one that our alumni and the entire BW community can be proud of," said Wolff. "As a coach, I could not be more excited to start the meet season with this group of student-athletes. The Swimmers and Divers are ready to go."
Following its meets at OWU and Wilmington, the Yellow Jackets return to the pool Friday, November 2nd at 7:30 p.m at Oberlin College in the Cleveland City Dual Tournament.
FOR MORE BW SPORTS INFORMATION, please contact SID Kevin Ruple by telephone at 440-826-2327 and e-mail at kruple@bw.edu and Assistant SID Jeff Miller by telephone at 440-826-2780 and e-mail at jefmille@bw.edu. Fans can access the latest B-W athletics information at www.bwyellowjackets.com and we invite you to join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bwyellowjackets and Twitter at http://twitter.com/bwathletics.
