The John Carroll University swimming and diving team, last having competed on January 30th against Baldwin-Wallace, will end the long lay-off on February 18th when they host the 2010 OAC Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving Championships at the University of Akron's Oliver J. Ocasek Natatorium.
The OAC Championships have always been good to the Blue Streaks since joining the conference in 1990. Coach Matt Lenhart, who has been at the helm since 1986, has guided 16 women's team to titles and 13 crowns on the men's side.
Folks around University Heights hope that last year was an abberation as neither team was able to come out on top. Ohio Northern University won both the men's and the women's titles. The JCU women took second place and the men took third among the five OAC teams that compete in swimming and diving.
Last year, the Blue Streaks had two individuals who managed to win an event, and both were freshmen. Alex Vereshchagin won the 100-meter Freestyle with a time of 46.85. Samantha Mossman set a new conference record in the 100-meter Backstroke with a time of 1:00.16, and then went on to win the 200-meter Backstroke. Both swimmers will be hoping to avoid the "sophomore slump" and repeat as champions.
One event to definitely keep an eye on is the three-meter dive. When JCU took on B-W two weeks ago, JCU sophomore Stanton Kochanek came up just two points shy of the Yellow Jackets' Todd Reichert, a Division III All-American a season ago.
For the women's team, Liana Sved will be competing in her final conference championships. Sved, who won three relay titles in her sophomore season, took four top-three finishes last season but didn't claim a title. In her last OAC meet, she could be tough to beat.
Heidi Benson and Katie Matthews are also former champions on the JCU roster who expect to be in the mix this weekend.
The three-day event starts on February 18th and runs through February 20th. Preliminaries start at 11 a.m. on each day, while the finals will begin at 6 p.m. The top-three in each individual event and top-two relay teams will earn All-OAC honors. Tickets are $5.00 per day, or $12.00 for a three-day event pass. Students with an OAC ID get in at no charge, while other students can enter for just $2.00.
The official website of the OAC Championships can be found here.