Men's Swimming & Diving Storms to Season-Opening Victory

2/6/2021 8:49:00 PM | By: Kyle Kelly, Senior Staff Writer

ALLIANCE, Ohio -- The John Carroll University Men's Swimming and Diving picked up right where they left off.

The Blue Streaks defeated the Mount Union Purple Raiders 172-127 on Feb. 6, 2021, at Hammond Natatorium on the campus of University of Mount Union. JCU placed first in nine events and received three wins from Forrest Campbell and a pair of victories by Nicholas Mudry.

With the team victory, head coach Tanner Barton earned his first win as John Carroll head coach. Barton's win comes nearly a year after the Blue Streaks outpaced the Purple Raiders to win the OAC Championships.

"I am immensely proud of how well our team raced," said Barton. "The swimmers supported one another and raced very well. Forrest had a great day and it was nice to see Austin and River secure their first collegiate victories. Jack also had an awesome day on the boards. Overall, our team did great."

The Blue and Gold swept the relay races with victories in the 200 Medley Relay and 200 Free Relay. The quartet of Campbell, Westin Fishel, Liam McDonnell and Jonah Venos completed the medley in 1:35.21. In the freestyle, Fishel, Michael Heller, Lenz and McDonnell finished the race in 1:26.38.

In the longer distance events, Mudry helped the Blue Streaks swimmers start the season off right with wins. In the first individual event of the day, Mudry (10.14.76) held off Mount Union's Brett Scheib by over eight seconds in the 1000 Free. Mudry also claimed the 500 Free with a time of 4:59.06.

Campbell won the 100 Backstroke, 100 Fly and 100 Free with times of 53.40, 52.80 and 47.26, respectively. The Blue Streaks were well represented in the 100 Backstroke, as Jonathan Simoes and River Flatley claimed the second and third spots. Simoes (54.77) only finished 1.37 seconds behind Campbell.

In his first collegiate swimming competition, Flately won the 200 Back with a time of 1:57.21. Simoes' time of 1:59.87 was third.

Freshman Austin Davis also recorded his first win at the college level with a victory in the 200 IM. Davis dominated the event with a time of 1:57.54, nearly three seconds better than Mount Union's Nathan Williams.

For the 200 Breaststroke competition, Davis claimed silver with his time of 2:16.77. Venos ended up third by swimming the event in 2:21.70.

Venos did pick up an individual win in the 100 Breaststroke, as he was the only swimmer to finish the race in less than one minute. Adam Lenz slotted into second place, as he was just 1.27 seconds slower than Venos.

The Blue Streaks also took second and third in the 50 Free. Heller (21.95) was only .10 behind Jason Tondra (21.85) from Mount Union. Adam Lenz placed third by clocking in a time of 22.09.

In the 200 Free and 200 Fly, Fishel (1:49.43) and McDonnell (2:03.00) both placed third. Fishel finished merely 0.06 seconds away from earning silver.

Among the divers, Jack Lausin finished second in the 1-meter competition with 126.10 points. Hammond Natatorium does not offer a 3-meter diving board, resulting in an optional 1-meter competition. Lausin won that second 1-meter diving competition by totaling 241.70 points — 22.2 points better than Eli Humeniuk from Mount Union.

Next on the slate, the Blue and Gold will travel to Berea to face Baldwin Wallace on Feb. 13.

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