WOOSTER, Ohio – Beginning defense of its College of Wooster Invitational Championships from the past two years, the No. 13 nationally-ranked Case Western Reserve University men's swimming & diving team sits second of eight schools competing after day one of three inside the Ellen Shapiro Natatorium.
Ranked 13th in the initial NCAA Division III national poll by the College Swim Coaches Association of America, the Spartans are right in the mix after day one sitting in second place with 393 points. Ohio Northern University sits first with 421.5, while Division II Gannon University (Pa.) is third with 332.5 and DII Edinboro University (Pa.) is fourth at 318.
In the opening finals event of the day, the Spartan 200-yard freestyle relay team placed fourth of 16 as the quartet of sophomore Eric Haufler (Westminster, Md./Francis Scott Key), junior Nick Clyde (Ann Arbor, Mich./Huron), sophomore Elliott Kerbel (Skokie, Ill./Niles West) and junior Gus Bailey (Grove City, Ohio/Grove City) touched the wall in 1:25.16.
Individually, Bailey placed third in the 50 free with a season-best mark of 21.51, and Clyde took fifth in the 200 individual medley with a season-best mark of 1:56.64.
Later in the evening, the Spartans placed fifth in the 400 medley relay as the team of sophomore Andrew Bollinger (Boulder, Colo./Fairview), junior Sean Nickley (Springfield, Va./West Springfield), Haufler and Bailey finished in 3:29.75.
The 200 free relay squad then closed the night in fourth with senior Kyle Tepe (Loveland, Ohio/Milford), freshman Andrew Howes (Clinton, Iowa/Clinton), junior Sean Corcoran (Harleysville, Pa./Souderton Area) and sophomore Caleb Allen (Knoxville, Tenn./Bearden) finishing fourth in 1:30.76.
Day two of the invitational begins on Friday with 10:00 a.m. prelims and 6:00 p.m. finals. The final day (Saturday) of competition runs at 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.
