Sports – Page 13 – The Transcript

School records set at the NCAC championship meet

The Ohio Wesleyan men’s and women’s swim teams set new records at the NCAC Conference Championship meet at Denison University Feb. 12 through Feb. 14.

The women’s team set two school records while the men’s team set four school records.

Junior Bryce Uzzolino set two school records in the 50 meter and 100 meter freestyle.

Uzzolino surpassed the 50 meter record of 21.39 seconds with his new time at 21.07 seconds. His time of 46.69 seconds in the 100 meter swim beat the previous record by .02 seconds.

Alongside his fellow team members sophomore Greyson Goodwin, senior Kaneat Nimcharoenwan and junior Andy Cumston, Uzzolino assisted in breaking the 200 meter free relay record of 1:24.64 set in 1992 with 1:24:36. He also beat the 400 free relay record – 3:08.14 – with a time of of 3:07.48.

OWU men’s team placed 7th out of 10 teams and OWU women’s team placed 8th out of 9 teams. Denison came in first place in both men’s and women’s beating out the traditional powerhouse, Kenyon.

Junior Bryce Uzzolino on Saturday. Photo courtesy of battlingbishops.com.

“We fall kind of in the middle in terms of the swim program,” said coach Richard Hawes. “But what we have to understand is that the NCAC is at the very top in the country so we could be in a different conference and win. So, for us to be in the middle is actually quite good. When you look at all the division three swimming programs we are probably in the top 25 percent.”

Before the meet, the men’s and women’s swim teams both sat down and wrote goals for themselves. There were three goals that were consistent between both teams: cheering for each other at the meets, swimming season-best times as well as lifetime-best times, and to break school records.

“100 percent of the teams achieved season best and about 92 percent set lifetime-best times” Hawes said. “They did not disappoint,” Hawes said. “I knew they were going to go fast and they did. They certainly hit every expectation that I had.”

Rugby gains popularity across OWU

Rugby, an imported sport with a growing following on Ohio Wesleyan campus, is on its way to being an institution.

With the spring season poised to start, both the men’s and women’s club rugby teams report an established coaching staff, growing rosters, and the potential to qualify for national tournaments.

“We’re more competitive,” director of OWU rugby John English said. “Just from last spring to this spring, the biggest change is more students are getting involved.”

Josh Longenbaker, head coach of the women’s team, said there are more than 20 women signed up to play and around 30 for the men’s team. Along with increased players comes increased play, with both teams signed up to play other schools and in tournaments. English said OWU will also host a sevens tournament for both teams.

In rugby, there are two formats of play. The traditional format pits two teams of 15 against each other for two, 40-minute halves while the sevens format narrows the players to seven a side, and the halves to seven minutes. Both teams will play both formats, though Longenbaker said the women’s team will be playing in a sevens league.

Longenbaker said atmosphere is important to getting, and keeping, players new to the sport. Some techniques include running the men’s and women’s practices together and making the drills run like fun games.

“We know everything we do works at a high level so we ask a lot,” Longenbaker said, “but we also try to make it fun.”

English and Longenbaker came to OWU from running a competitive high school program. Also on staff are Cody Albright, coach of the men’s team, and Pat Bowling.

Sophomore Liam McNulty, who formed the men’s club last year, said the coaches’ experience helps create a welcoming atmosphere, essential to helping people “understand the true beauty” of an aggressive sport.

“Other than myself and a handful of others, most members have not played rugby before their college careers,” McNulty said. “Since I started the program, the development of this atmosphere has been crucial.”

McNulty said efforts to recruit are always ongoing – he said players constantly talk about the club, wear the gear to gain visibility and try to get as many students as possible “hooked” by going to the games. Students might have also noticed posters for the women’s club taped around OWU, stating the empowering aspects of playing rugby.

Junior Lauren Kiebler, public relations chair for the women’s club, said it’s well known that the club is inclusive, but it is important to note it is open to non-binary players; the team plays in a trans-inclusive league.

Freshman Bree Riggle said the rugby club was a big reason she chose to come to OWU, though health reasons have prevented her from attending many practices.

“Everyone helps everyone,” Riggle said. “It’s a family. I love it. It’s a great sport.”

Women’s basketball wins on National Day

The win against Kenyon for the Ohio Wesleyan University women’s basketball team was a win for women everywhere.

With the women’s soccer, rugby and softball teams in attendance, the women’s basketball team defeated NCAC rivals Kenyon 75-71 on National Girls and Women in Sports Day last Saturday, Feb. 7.

The win pushed the Battling Bishops’ overall record to 11-11 and their conference record to 8-6.

Senior LaNiece McRae had a game high with 23 points and sophomore guard Megan Kuether crucially connected on four free throws in the last minute to put away the Lords and add to her career-high 22 points.

“It felt great to get the win, especially since all the other women’s teams were there supporting us,” Kuether said. “The win felt bigger and more exciting because of all the support for (National Girls and Women in Sports Day).”

According to the Women’s Sports Foundation website, this year marks the 29th National Girls and Women in Sports Day. The theme of the day was the reduction of concussions in female student-athletes, something that the website reports as a major concern “among female athletes at both the collegiate and high school levels.”

The website also suggests “there is evidence of gender differences in the outcomes of concussions, with evidence suggesting that female athletes present more concussion symptoms acutely, take a longer period to recover from concussions and report a greater number of and more prolonged post-concussion symptoms than male athletes.”

OWU women’s basketball beat Allegheny 58-56 in a thriller last Saturday and now looks toward proving themselves further in the NCAC tournament.

“We will keep working hard in practice as a team and committing to defense which helped us the past few games,” Kuether said. “Hopefully it will help us peak for the tournament.”

The 8-6 NCAC record has the Bishops sitting fifth in the conference with two remaining games against Oberlin and DePauw. Oberlin is third in the conference with a 10-4 record and DePauw is first at 15-0.

Last year, the women defeated DePauw in the last game of the season to give the Tigers their only conference lost.

Track and field break records, enjoy success

Freshman Amanda Clay. Photo courtesy of battlingbishops.com.

Olympic legend Mark Spitz once said, “Records are meant to broken.” The Ohio Wesleyan women’s track and field team has proven that Spitz was right.

Freshman Amanda Clay has already broke two OWU school records. At the Spire Midwest Indoor Track and Field Open on Jan. 31, Clay set an individual record in the 60-meter dash and helped set a team record in the 1600-meter relay.

“There were teams from all over the country and through every division at the Spire meet,” Clay said. “That high level of competition I think really helped drive me to run my fastest and perform as well as I did. I found out after preliminaries that some of the women competing were trying to qualify for the Olympics, so it was really cool to face that level of competition.

Clay ran the 60-meter dash in 8.01 seconds, and the four person team of Clay, senior Katie Reid, junior Abbey Warth and sophomore Sierra Wright finished the 1600-meter relay in 4 minutes and 0.82 seconds.

“For me this is the first year I’ve run the 60-meter dash,” Clay said. “To see my times improve so much in practice has been really encouraging.”

Thus far both the men’s and women’s track and field teams have come in first place in all four scored events of the season, successes which they want to build on for the rest of the season.

“Now really is the time we emphasize working hard so we can peak at conferences and nationals,” sophomore sprinter/hurdler MaryKate Caja said. “So the fact that we are already having people break records really speaks to the quality of athletes we have on this team.”

The recent success of both Clay and the entire team has led to them receiving a top ten Division III ranking. According to the weekly ranking released by d3rankings.us, OWU is ranked No. 9 overall and as the highest ranked team within the Great Lakes region.

According to Caja, much of the team’s success can be attributed to their depth, which helps earn secondary points and boost their point total and climb the rankings.

Clay added not only is there depth, but a strong spread throughout all of the event groups.

“Everyone realizes that they can contribute in some way, and as a result we have gotten great performances across the board from everyone,” she said.

The goal for the team is to continue working hard and improve everyone’s times enough to qualify for the All-Ohio and NCAA National Championship events. Clay has the personal goal of beating her OWU record and running the 60-meter dash in less than 8 seconds.

Some highlights to look forward to for the Bishops include the OWU Open on Feb.13 and the NCAC Championship in Greencastle, Indiana on March 6-7.

No seniors, no problem for men’s tennis team

Despite having no seniors on the team, Ohio Wesleyan men’s tennis, under second-year coach Tom Drabczyk Jr., set their sights on achieving a regional and division ranking.

Coach Drabczyk Jr. also coaches the OWU women’s tennis team.

“Being on a team without any seniors has its advantages and disadvantages,” said freshman Elliot Garwood. “One of the advantages is that it forces someone on the team to step up and lead, even when things seem to be going in the wrong direction.”

Garwood found success during the team’s fall tournaments. This included a second place finish in the B singles bracket at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s Central Regional tournament in Indianapolis, Ind.

Since then, the Battling Bishops have been practicing in Gordon Field House throughout the winter. This is the same place home matches will occur until the weather improves.

Garwood mentioned that having indoor courts provides the team with advantages that a lot of other Midwestern schools may not have.

“Coming from South Florida I am used to playing outside all the time,” Garwood said. “Practicing indoors is not so bad because it actually helps my technique on my ground strokes and my serve.”

Junior Austin Okray, the only player on the team to have lettered twice, feels the same about being able to practice indoors, adding that practice has been intense leading up to the first spring match.

“We just want to win and to take over a regional ranking to prove we are not to mess with,” Okray said. “Our schedule has aligned us to have a real chance at a Division III ranking.”

OWU starts off the spring season on Feb. 8 in Kalamazoo, Mich. against Kalamazoo College.

Wrestling joins OWU sports family

Of all the sports and clubs offered at Ohio Wesleyan University, wrestling is not one of them. That changed when sophomores Ifa Abduljelil and Josh Pyles started the wrestling club.

The club currently has 24 members and practices from 6–8 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday with a Sunday practice from 4–6 p.m. All practices are held in Branch Rickey Arena.

“I was really surprised (with the turnout),” Abduljelil said. “I mean, wrestling is a big thing, but I didn’t expect 24 guys to be signing up at a small school like this.”

While setting up the club has taken some time, and there are currently no wrestling meets scheduled, a major accomplishment has been made – the wrestling club found a coach.

Tom Josefowicz, the new coach, has been an athletic trainer for OWU since the fall of 2009.

Josefowicz wrestled at Eastern Michigan University and worked as a graduate assistant athletic trainer for the Iowa State University wrestling team.

“I’ve known Tom from football and track. He has the famous cauliflower ear so when you see that you have to talk about wrestling,” Abduljelil said.

He continued by saying that Josefowicz was very excited that someone finally started a wrestling club and that students who are interested will finally have an opportunity.

“I look forward to getting in shape and sharing different techniques with other wrestlers,” said junior Soma Yoshida, who is studying at OWU for a year. “I’m from Japan so it’s good for me to wrestle in a different style.”

Yoshida is a free style wrestler; university level wrestling is done in folk style.

At this time the goals of the wrestling club are to continue to practice consistently, schedule meets as early as the spring semester of 2015 and establish wrestling as an official sport at OWU.

Seniors guide men’s lacrosse into another hopeful season

After a successful 2014 season, the Ohio Wesleyan men’s lacrosse team is looking to build off of experience and momentum.

The team went 12-4 last year, finishing second in the NCAC behind Denison University. OWU is returning a total of 10 seniors from that team.

Senior Kyle Foster. Photo courtesy of the battling bishops website.

One of those seniors is captain and midfielder Kyle Foster.

“We’re optimistic about the season, we know what we need to accomplish,” Foster said.

Foster was named to the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association Division III All-America team as an honorable mention last season. Battling Bishop goalkeeper Ryan McMahon, who is also a returning senior, was named as an honorable mention as well.

“Personal accolades are nice but at the end of the day that’s not why you play, you play for the guy next to you,” Foster said.

OWU opens the season with a home game on Feb. 14 against Augustana College at Selby Stadium. A week later the team will go on to play Roanoke College in Virginia.

Senior Tommy Minkler. Photo courtesy of the battling bishops website.

The Battling Bishops are looking to take it one game at a time, but it is hard for them not to have their sights set on surpassing Denison and the NCAC championship.

“For us to win the NCAC this year, we are going to have to maintain a level of consistent play that we have never had here before, which means that we cannot afford to take any days off,” said senior attacker Tommy Minkler.

Until the opening game against Augustana, the Battling Bishops will continue to practice out in the cold and brave the winter climate of Ohio.

“Every day, our goal is to improve from the day before,” Minkler said. “If we have that mentality all season long the team will be very successful in the NCAC and NCAA.”

Women’s lacrosse switches focus of practices to team building

Women Lax 2 — Members of the women’s lacrosse team. Photo courtesy of Coach Chelsea Huguenard.

Ohio Wesleyan women’s lacrosse is changing their focus: Team chemistry is taking the front burner.

“I think we have always been a very bonded team, but then on the field, our play doesn’t reflect that,” senior Abbie Love said. “So this season, we are taking the steps to learn to work more as a cohesive unit and build each other up.”

Last season, the women’s lacrosse team finished 8-9 and 2-6 in the NCAC, according to team captain senior Eileen Foley.

In order to perform better in the NCAC, Foley said the team has been trying a revamped style of practice.

“We are doing a lot more conditioning this season,” Foley said. “We’re dedicating one day per week just to yoga and stretching.”

Foley also said the team is learning from last season in other ways.

“We learned that we do a lot better when we are less structured,” Foley said. “Plus it helps that our coaches live and breathe OWU lacrosse.”

Foley said last season was more of a building year. It was Coach Chelsea Huguenard’s first year coaching at OWU.

“This season, we’re also a lot more focused on the process,” Huguenard said. She added the practices include not only drills and 11 vs. 11 scrimmages, but also on team-building exercises to improve the team’s chemistry.

Before coming to OWU, Huguenard coached at Olentangey High School for three years and at Kenyon College for two years.

“Coming to coach at OWU has pretty much been a dream come true for me,” Huguenard said.

Freshman standout gains momentum

Ohio Wesleyan freshman exceeds expectations and leaps past competition to stand out at the OWU Triangular track meet on Friday.

Emily Brown, a freshman from New Concord, Ohio, won the long jump, 200-meter race and played a part in the 800-meter relay victory at the event in Gordon Field House. Brown completed the 200-meter dash with a time of 27.69 seconds and jumped 5.15 meters to win in the long jump.

“Long jump is my absolute favorite,” Brown said. “I’ve just always liked it and it’s my best event.”

Coach Kris Boey was pleased with Brown’s performance as well as the team’s, especially after a long break from training.

“Emily is off to an outstanding start, but the best is yet to come for her,” Boey said. “The same can be said for our team as a whole.”

College coaches contacted Brown at the end of her junior year of high school. That is when she became interested in OWU.

“When I came to visit, I liked how the team actually came together and was more of a family,” Brown said. “I liked the environment.”

Teammate Amy Greenwood, a junior, sees the potential in Brown.

“[Brown] had a personal record at her first collegiate meet,” Greenwood said. “She has a good shot to break some school records.”

Even as a freshman, Brown has some impressive goals for the rest of the season. “I want to (personal record) in everything,” she said. “At least get better after each meet.”

But having personal records alone is not enough for Brown. She also has visions for her team’s success.

“Our seniors this year are going for the grand slam for the fourth time,” Brown said. “That would be pretty cool.”

A grand slam is achieved when the team wins both indoor and outdoor conferences and all the events in Ohio.

Coach DeWitt reaches 300 win milestone

Coach Mike DeWitt. Photo courtesy of the Battling Bishops website.

Coach Mike Krzyzewski of Duke University isn’t the only men’s college basketball coach earning milestone wins.

With a 76-64 victory over DePauw University on Jan. 17, Coach Mike DeWitt of the Ohio Wesleyan University men’s basketball team earned his 300th career win, 250 of which have been with OWU.

The 300 wins are not the only thing that have marked success for Coach DeWitt. He has led OWU to three consecutive, 20-plus win seasons as well as three consecutive NCAA Division III playoff appearances.

The very next game, a win over Oberlin College on Jan. 21, gave him the best winning percentage (.595) for an OWU men’s basketball coach since Raymond Detrick in 1938-1939.

But DeWitt is not one to stop and celebrate such accomplishments. It is difficult for most coaches to do so in basketball with the seasons being so fast paced.

“If you coach long enough, coaching milestones are going to happen naturally,” DeWitt said. “These milestones are a direct reflection of the quality of players I’ve had the opportunity to coach here at Ohio Wesleyan.”

One of those quality players is senior guard Nick Felhaber who has played for DeWitt for four years.

“It’s been a great experience,” Felhaber said. “For me as a player I’ve had some ups and downs with injuries and stuff. He’s remained patient with me and now that it’s my senior year, I’ve stepped up and have a big role.”

Felhaber and his fellow teammates didn’t know about the milestone going into the game against DePauw.

“We had no idea, nobody on the team knew. We found out after the game. Actually somebody put it in a group message that we have for all the players to communicate,” Felhaber said.

Now, with the 300th win behind them and a winning pace that could see another 20-plus win season, the men’s basketball team has their sights on the NCAC regular season title.