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.