AKRON, Ohio – Senior All-OAC diver and Academic All-OAC performer Ellie Clymer (Independence) and sophomore All-OAC freestyler Bella Ratino (Mentor/Hawken) each claimed a title on the final night to lead the Baldwin Wallace University women's swimming and diving team to a third place finish at the OAC Championships, which was hosted by BW, in the Ocasek Natatorium on the campus of the University of Akron.
The Yellow Jackets finished third of five teams with 566.5 points. John Carroll University won its fifth straight title with 974.5 points.
The top three individuals and the top two relay teams earn All-OAC honors.
Clymer won her first OAC Championship as she claimed the 1-meter and six dive event with a career-best total points of 346.05 to earn her second career All-OAC accolade. She also was seventh in the 200-yard breaststroke in a time of 2:35.14. Ratino successfully defended her title in the 1650-yard freestyle as she won the event in a season-best time of 18:02.95. For the championships, she won two titles and earned three All-OAC individual honors.
Also earning All-OAC honors were senior All-OAC and Academic All-OAC performer Marissa Kural (LaGrange, Ill./Lyons Township), senior All-OAC and Academic All-OAC performer Erika Nockengost (Cuyahoga Falls) and sophomore freestyler Kayla McClintock (Venetia, Pa./Peters Township).
Kural was the runner-up in the 200-yard butterfly in a career-best time of 2:12.11 to earn her second All-OAC honor of the weekend and her career. Nockengost earned her second this weekend and fifth career All-OAC individual accolade as she placed third in the 100-yard freestyle in a career-best time of 53.55 seconds. McClintock earned her first career All-OAC nod as she finished third in the 1650-yard freestyle in a career-best time of 18:16.35.
In addition, senior All-OAC freestyler Allie Thorson (Amherst/Marion Steele) placed fourth in the 1650-yard freestyle in a season-best time of 18:17.85. Sophomore All-OAC freestyler Madeleine Pierce (Perry), who swam a season-best 54.42 in the prelims, took seventh in the 100-yard freestyle in a time of 55.43. Freshman stroker LynnDee Popovich (Middleburg Heights/Reichelshelm Academy) touched in ninth place in the 200-yard breaststroke in a career-best time of 2:38.68. Freshman stroker Aubrey Syron (Dayton/Archbishop Alder) was 10th in the 200-yard backstroke in a career-best time of 2:20.08. Freshman freestyler Julia Newbould (Strongsville) came in 10th in the 100-yard freestyle in a career-best time of 55.46.
In relay action, the 400-yard freestyle team of Nockengost, Kural, Thorson and Pierce were the runners-up in a school-record time of 3:36.85.
