Skip To Main Content
Skip To Main Content

John Carroll University Athletics

home of the Blue Streaks
Danielle Turi wide angle
Jess Maddux

Weekend Preview: Swimming & Diving Begins, Basketball and Track & Field Continues

| By: Kayla Sokolowski and Kyle Kelly, Staff Writers
UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS. Ohio -- John Carroll University Athletics will be quite busy this weekend as winter season rolls along. 

Here is what to expect this weekend for the Blue Streaks. 

Men's Basketball

The John Carroll Blue Streaks face the Baldwin Wallace Yellow Jackets at home Friday, February 5 at 7:00 pm. The Yellow Jackets will host the Blue Streaks on Saturday, February 6 at 6:00 pm. The Blue Streaks have been on a hiatus after cancellations due to COVID-19. It'll be an interesting battle of the two rivals. 

Last time the teams played each other, the Blue Streaks won by 19 points. The Blue Streaks topped 50 points in the first half, and the team enjoyed its second-best shooting night of the season, hitting 53.4% from the field. This season, the Yellow Jackets are 1-3. They broke their losing streak of three games last Saturday in a victory over Marietta. Baldwin Wallace poses the biggest scoring threat in the conference in Anthony Mazzeo, who leads the OAC with 20.3 points per game.

In their first game played since the OAC Championship in 2020, the Blue Streaks lost to Heidelberg 63-59 at the DeCarlo Varsity Center in the season opener. Although the Blue and Gold began their season with a loss, sophomore Eric Hanna was a bright spot with a team-high 11 points in his first game started at JCU. Senior sharpshooter Jackson Sartain will look to get back in the groove after scoring seven points in the team opener.  

Women's Basketball

Back-to-back D3Hoops.com Team of the Week senior forward Nicole Heffington and the undefeated Blue Streaks are back in action this weekend with two games in two nights against conference foe, Baldwin Wallace. The Blue Streaks will be on the road tonight, heading to Berea, while the Yellow Jackets will travel to University Heights on Saturday for a 6 pm tipoff.

The Blue Streaks and Yellow Jackets have plenty of history with each other. The two crosstown rivals have played each other 86 times; there is no other team the JCU Women have played more since the team's founding in 1970.

The last time these two rivals faced each other was in the OAC Championship game. The Blue Streaks lost to the Yellow Jackets by 17 points in Berea. A strong BW start forced JCU to play catch up, and the Blue Streaks fell even after outscoring the hosts in two of the final three quarters. During the 2019-20 regular season, each team claimed a game (JCU 59-53 on Jan. 22, BW, 80-77 on Feb. 12).

John Carroll checks into this week's pair of games 4-0 on the season and slotted first place in the OAC standings. Baldwin Wallace is 3-1 and tied for second with Otterbein (3-1).

This weekend will feature the two top scorers in the conference in Heffington (22.3 ppg) and Lilly Edwards (20.5 ppg). Heffington was named this past week's OAC Player of the Week with 23 and 30-point performances in respective nights against Mount Union. Edwards is first in the conference in rebounds (11.5), marking a double-double on average per game. 

Swimming & Diving

The JCU Men and Women's Swimming & Diving teams will be on the road in Alliance, Ohio at 1:00 pm on Saturday, February 6, as the University of Mount Union Purple Raiders will host the John Carroll Blue Streaks. 

The last time the both teams faced off, both of the JCU teams won against the Raiders. The men's team won 205-89 and the women's team won 205-75. This will be the Blue Streaks' first conference meet of the season. Last week, the Blue Streaks had an intrasquad scrimmage. Meanwhile, both of the Raiders' teams had a conference match against the Baldwin Wallace Yellow Jackets. Both Mount Union teams beat the Yellow Jackets.

On the men's side, the Blue and Gold return OAC Swimmers of the Year Forrest Campbell and Eric Sriubas. In last season's OAC Championships, it was the Purple Raiders that finished second.

Two-time OAC Female Swimmer of the Year Gwyn Ledrick leads a JCU women's squad that has claimed the conference title the last four years. Mount Union's women also finished second in last year's conference championships meet.

This meet will be Tanner Barton's first as head coach of both teams.

Track and Field 

Saturday, February 6 marks the third meet of indoor season for the JCU Men's and Women's Track & Field programs. The Blue Streaks will be at the University of Mount Union for an OAC meet. 

The meet will be against the Mount Union Purple Raiders, the Ohio Northern Polar Bears, and the Heidelberg Student Princes. The JCU women's team is currently undefeated, having finished first in each of the season's first two meets. The men's squad won the opening meet and finished second last weekend. 

This will be the third time this season that the Blue Streaks and Polar Bears are facing off. The Student Princes have won one meet so far this season. This will be the Raiders' first meet of the season. 

Wrestling

After missing last week's OAC meet, a handful of JCU wrestlers will take part in the final event of a protracted season, hosted by Mount Union. 
Print Friendly Version

Related Videos

Now Playing:

Related Stories

Sponsors