ARKADELPHIA – The Ouachita Baptist University men's swimming & diving team took on a nationally-ranked opponent on Friday night in its first home meet of the season, eventually falling to Oklahoma Christian by a close score of 126-111.
OCU finished the 2021-22 season ranked 16th in all of NCAA Division II. The first poll for the 2022-23 comes out next week.
The results of Friday's meet between the Tigersharks and Eagles came down to OCU winning the first four events of the night, which proved to be too big a hole for Ouachita to climb out of. The Eagles ended with 10 wins in 13 total events. Ouachita was less than a second off the lead in three different events.
Samuel Woods had a big night on the boards for Ouachita with more than 150 combined points separating him from the other divers in the one-meter and three-meter events.
Ouachita's top performances included:
- 400-yard individual medley: Noah Smith came in first by three tenths of a second at 4:13.53, followed closely by his teammate Jeff McCoy in second.
- One-meter diving: Samuel Woods came in first by 82 points with a total of 280.40. Bryce Benson came in second at 197.85. Chase Foiles came in third at 141.55.
- 100-yard freestyle: Ian Redman came in second at 47.43, just over a second ahead of the winner from OCU.
- 200-yard backstroke: Jeff McCoy finished in second 1:57.44, just six tenths of a second off the leader.
- 500-yard freestyle: Tyler Andruss came in second at 4:50.94, less than a second behind the leader from OCU.
- Three-meter diving: Samuel Woods again had a big win, this time by just 70 points with a final total of 282.85. Benson came in second at 212.90. Foiles came in third at 133.55.
After hosting their annual alumni meet on Saturday morning, the Tigersharks will begin preparing for a tri-meet against Southwestern University and the University of Texas of the Permian Basis next Saturday, October 15 in Grapevine, Texas.
