Author: Phoebe Christine Bush

The Bishops ended their regular season with the OWU invitational on Jan. 21.

The women finished fourth out of five and the men finished second out of five.
While the teams did not win the meet, they were pleased with their overall performance.
“The season has been great. I am very happy with my performance and the performance of the teams this season,” said sophomore Katie Helfrich.
“The invitational was a blast and I always enjoy seeing others do well. My favorite thing to do is cheer on my teammates,” she said.
Helfrich posted the team’s best women’s individual finish, with a second place time in the 100 breaststroke and an added sixth-place finish in the 200 breaststroke.
Freshman Matthew Mahoney had the highest score for OWU men and won the 100 breaststroke in 1:00.38, placed third in the 200 breaststroke and fourth in the 100 freestyle to help the Bishops advance in the invitational.
“I have been very pleased with how my technique and endurance have developed over the course of this season under the instruction and help of my two coaches, Richard Hawes and Mike Kroll,” Mahoney said.
“Without their help and critiques of my strokes and technique it would have been extremely difficult to be where I am now with my times and ability,” Mahoney said.
“I can also confidently say that without the help of my fellow teammates who have pushed me in every practice, I would not have been able to swim the great times I achieved at the invitational.”
Some of the other standouts for the Bishops were sophomore Jennifer Erichsen who finished third in the 1000 freestyle, sophomore Melissa Ward who was third in the 100 butterfly and senior Morgan Canup who placed third in the 1-meter diving.
For the men, the 800 freestyle relay team of Mahoney, sophomore Taylor Smith, freshman Marcus Ramirez and sophomore Sean Anthony helped the team finish second.
Hawes was pleased with the performance of the team at the invitational, especially due to the tremendous amount of effort required of the swimmers.
“Swimming is a sport where the season is more or less practice for the conference championships,” said Hawes.
“Our last regular season competition in combination with the meet the night before, University of Findlay and the OWU Invite, was a test to see how (the team) swim(s) tired.  This part of the season is very difficult as it is the peak in terms of workload,” he said.
The swimmers are now preparing for the North Coast Athletic Conference meet where they will face some of their toughest competition.
“I am looking to swim the best I can and leave everything in the pool,” Mahoney said.
“I feel that I owe it to the seniors who have provided great leadership and advice over this season to do the very best I can,” he said.
The NCAC tournament swim meet will take place Feb. 15-18 in Canton.

The Ohio Wesleyan men’s basketball team defeated Wabash on Wednesday night after a 3-pointer made by freshman guard Nick Felhaber in the final minute of the game.

Felhaber said the play was run to get senior guard Tim Brady the ball.

He said Brady had two Wabash players guarding him before junior guard

Andy Winters could get Brady the ball.

When Felhaber got the ball, he said he thought to himself, “Just let it fly, and don’t hesitate.”
Coach Mike Dewitt said he thought Wint

ers played well under pressure.
“Andy did a great job finding Nick when Tim wasn’t open,” Dewitt said. “Nick is a deadly 3-point shooter.”
The play came after a Wabash turnover with 23.3 second left in the game.
The Bishops started the first half quickly and had an 11 point lead through the first 10 minutes of the game.
However, Wabash went on a scoring run to bring the game back within 2 points near the end of the first half.
Winters drove to the basket and scored with just second on the clock to send the Bishops into halftime with a 32-28 lead.
Winters had 11 assists in the game.
DeWitt said he was disappointed the Bishops were not ahead by more at halftime, and they left a lot of opportunities to be ahead by more.

“Coach brought up how well we played defense for the first half of the first half and said we need to play like that for the second half if we are going to win this game,” Brady said.
“During the game, I just made sure to concentrate on what was happening in the game right now and not worry about if we win or lose, just play every play the best that I can.”
Wabash stayed in the game the whole night, not letting the Bishops get far ahead in the second half.
Brady started the second half with 7 straight points and led the Bishops in scoring with 31 points in the game.
Junior forward Marshall Morris made some significant shots in the second half, including a 3-point shot with just over 3 minutes to go to put the
Bishops up 59-55. Morris scored a total of 20 points in the game.
This win followed a loss to Wooster over the weekend by 4 points. Brady led the team in scoring with 22 points.
“We kept our confidence. We know how good we are and can be,” Brady said.
DeWitt said the experience of the close loss to Wooster made the team better prepared for the Wabash game.
“We made some mistakes late in the Wooster game and we learned from those mistake

s, which helped us win against Wabash,” Brady said.
The North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) now has a two-way tie for second place between Ohio Wesleyan and Wooster, with Wittenberg in the lead. Ohio Wesleyan and Wooster are both 7-3, and Wittenberg is 9-1 in conference play.
“In the NCAC this year, it’s going to come down to the last games to decide who ends up w

here in the conference rankings,” Brady said.

Ohio Wesleyan’s overall record stands at 15-4 with upcoming games at Wittenberg and at Oberlin on Wednesday and Saturday.
The Bishops play their next home game on February 8 at 8 p.m. against Wooster.