Facing a team that had already been in the water twice this season seemed to matter little to the John Carroll women's swimming and diving team.
In their maiden competition of the 2019-2020 campaign, the Blue Streaks used three early 1-2-3 sweeps as fuel to what became a dominating 170-91 victory over Ohio Athletic Conference rival Ohio Northern Saturday in Ada, Ohio.
Results
After opening the afternoon with a win by
Maddie Panus,
Gwyn Ledrick,
Tori Vale and
Maddie Dolce in the 200 Medley Relay (1:52.85), the Blue Streaks turned on the jets in the 1000 Free and 200 Free.
Freshman
Lauren Spence led a 1-2-3 sweep in the 1000, touching the wall first in 11:31.83. Junior
Hope Scherger was next to finish in 11:44.06, and fellow junior
Paige Wnek was third in 11:47.03
Another freshman,
Ashley Lynch, led a sweep of the top three spots in the 200 by winning the race in 2:01.45. Seniors
Maddie Dolce (2:03.49) and
Emily Yoos (2:04.00) completed the deed.
After suffering their first loss in the 100 Back, Ledrick does what All-Americans do - righted the ship. Along with
Shelbi Shearer in her 100 Breast debut, Ledrick helped JCU gain 13 points with a 1-2 finish. Ledrick won in 1:07.98, and Shearer touched second in 1:12.55.
The 200 Fly was yet another podium sweep for the Blue and Gold. Freshman Yryra Bohan (2:18.14), freshman Rachel Halapchuck (2:24.50) and junior Sophie Izzo (2:31.29) were the first three finishers in that event.
Lynch picked up her second win in the 100 Free (56.68), as did Ledrick in the 200 Breast (2:28.69) and Bohan in the 500 Free (5:33.20).
Earning her first collegiate win was Halapchuck in the 100 Fly (1:02.08). She was followed to the wall by Vale (1:02.58) and Yoos (1:03.30), marking the final 1-2-3 sweep of the day for John Carroll.
The Blue Streaks finished with a bang, taking the top two places in the closing 400 Free Relay. The quartet of Panus, Vale, Dolce and Halapchuck (3:47.21) finished first, while the foursome of Wnek, Bohan, Kayleigh Gaydos and Lynch (3:50.29) finished second.
John Carroll, which defeated Ohio Northern for the fourth consecutive year, is now 1-0 on the year both overall and in the OAC.