The Ohio Northern men's indoor track and field team will look to compete for an Ohio Athletic Conference title in 2017 under eighth-year head coach Jason Maus. Northern finished second on the conference in both the indoor and outdoor season's a year ago and posted its third consecutive top-3 appearance in the league in both seasons.
Maus welcomes back 22 letterwinners from the 2015-16 seasons. "We like our chances this year in the OAC," said head coach Jason Maus. "We return a nice group from last season and hope to build on the success we had last year."
Here is how the 2017 Polar Bears break down in every event category:
Junior T.J. Storer (Loveland/Moeller) has been named Preseason First Team All-America for the 2017 baseball season. Storer led Northern in 2016 with eight saves on the mound, which ranks second best all-time at Ohio Northern in a single season. The junior owns the all-time ONU baseball saves record with 13 career saves.
Storer's 0.49 ERA in 2016 ranks third lowest all-time at Ohio Northern and his career ERA of 1.23 ranks first all-time at Ohio Northern.
The Ada wrestling team finished seventh at the 16-team Spartan Wrestling Invitational at Lima Senior Saturday. Mechaniscsburg won the team competition with 296 points. Spencerville finished just ahead of Ada in sixth place with 107 points, compared to 103 by the Bulldogs.
Ada junior Chase Sumner (2-1 with a bye on the day) was pinned at 5:36 in the 138 lb. finals by Mechanicsburg's Alex Rhine to finish second. Several other Bulldogs had solid showings, led by a pair of freshmen.
Visiting Spencerville started and finished very strongly to post a convincing 74-42 victory over the Ada boys basketball team in a Northwest Conference bout Friday night. Following a fifth consecutive defeat, the Bulldogs fell to 2-8 overall and 0-3 in the NWC. Meanwhile, the league-leading Bearcats improved to 8-2 and 3-0.
The No. 30-ranked Ohio Northern men's swimming and diving team fell 160-123 at Mount Union at the Hammond Natatorium Saturday afternoon. The Polar Bears fall to 4-3 overall and are 1-2 in Ohio Athletic Conference action, while the Purple raiders improve to 7-0, 3-0.
Seniors Eric Chen (Mason) and Logan Pfeifer (Bucyrus/Colonel Crawford) each won twice to lead ONU. Chen won the 100 free in :48.56 and Pfeifer won the 50 free in :22.34. The pair then combined with juniors Thomas Golba (Kettering/Archbishop Alter) and Ian Simpson (Strongsville) to win the 400 free relay in 3:16.85.
Visiting McComb scored the last 10 points of overtime to pull out a comeback 58-50 victory over Ada in a hard-fought girls basketball battle Saturday afternoon. The Lady Bulldogs fell to 5-7 overall with the difficult defeat. Meanwhile, the Lady Panthers improved to 5-7 with their fifth consecutive win. "If you can't rebound, you can't win," said Ada head coach Bill Taflinger. "We have to win the close games. We just didn't come up with the key rebounds when we needed to."
