AKRON, Ohio – Senior Academic All-OAC performer Marissa Kural (LaGrange, Ill./Lyons Township) won her first career Ohio Athletic Conference Championship to lead the Baldwin Wallace University women's swimming and diving team to a third place standing after the second day of competition at the OAC Championships, which is hosted by BW, in the Ocasek Natatorium on the campus of the University of Akron.
The Yellow Jackets are third of five teams with 376.5 points. Four-time defending OAC Champion and crosstown rival John Carroll University leads with 658.5 points.
The top three individuals and the top two relay teams earn All-OAC honors.
Kural won the 100-yard butterfly in a career-best time of 57.79 seconds to claim her first career All-OAC accolade.
Also earning All-OAC honors and bringing home runner-up finishes were senior All-OAC and Academic All-OAC performer Erika Nockengost (Cuyahoga Falls) and sophomore All-OAC freestyler Bella Ratino (Mentor/Hawken).
Nockengost, who was the two-time defending champion, finished second in the 100-yard butterfly in a season-best time of 58.18 to earn her fourth career All-OAC nod. Ratino earned her second All-OAC of the championships and fifth overall as she finished second in the 400-yard individual medley in a school-record time of 4:37.44.
In addition, sophomore All-OAC freestyler Madeleine Pierce (Perry), who swam a season-best 59.90 seconds in the prelims, placed fifth in the 100-yard backstroke in a time of 1:00.58 Senior Academic All-OAC performer Ellie Clymer (Independence), who swam a season-best time of 1:08.84 in the prelims, finished fifth in the 100-yard breaststroke in a time of 1:09.20. Senior All-OAC freestyler Allie Thorson (Amherst/Marion Steele) placed seventh in the 200-yard freestyle in a season-best time of 1:59.03. Freshman stroker LynnDee Popovich (Middleburg Heights/Reichelshelm Academy), who swam a career-best time of 5:00.92 in the prelims, finished eighth in the 400-yard individual medley in a time of 5:02.27. Popovich, who swam a career-best time of 1:12.00 in the prelims, placed 11th in the 100-yard breaststroke in a time of 1:12.77. Freshman freestyler Julia Newbould (Strongsville) placed ninth in the 100-yard butterfly in a career-best time of 1:01.37. Freshman stroker Aubrey Syron (Dayton/Archbishop Alder) took ninth in the 100-yard backstroke in a career-best time of 1:03.24 and was 10th in the 100-yard butterfly in a career-best time of 1:01.82.
In relay action, the 200-yard medley squad of Pierce, Clymer, Kural and Newbould were the runners-up and earned All-OAC honors with a time of 1:49.78. The 800-yard freestyle unit of Nockengost, Thorson, Ratino and Kural came in second in a season-best time of 7:53.50.
The Yellow Jackets close out the OAC Championships on Saturday, February 15. Preliminary action begins at 10 a.m. and finals will be contested at 6 p.m.
