Swim and Dive

The Men’s and women’s swim and dive teams traveled to Cincinnati University over the weekend to compete in their first meet of 2017. Both teams finished third behind Ohio State University and Cincinnati University.

Paul Huch had a successful weekend. He took home first-place finishes in both the 200-yard backstroke (1:50.28) and the 200 free relay. Huch’s relay team, consisting of Jeremiah Morren, Tony Eriksson and Andrew Binder, set a pool record with a time of 1:21.91.  His 200-yard backstroke performance was closely followed by a second-place finish by his teammate Aleksander Danielewski (1:51.26).

For the women’s team, Patricia Aschan finished third in the 200 IM (2:05.95) and the 200 breaststroke (2:21.10), while Grace Shinske swam to a third-place finish in the 100 backstroke (57.45).

Track and Field

The men’s track and field team opened up 2017 with a first-place team finish at Saturday’s meet at Central Michigan University. Among the many successes of the day, Brandon Davis broke the school’s indoor record for long jump with a mark of 23 feet, 6.25 inches.

Oakland’s men’s team saw seven other first-place finishes, including Gino Vitella in shot put (57 feet, 0.25 inches), Nick Girodat in the 60-meter dash (6.9 seconds) and George O’Connor in the mile (4:17.73).

The women’s team saw four first-place finishes in their second-place team finish. Chanel Garder won the 200-meter with a time of 26.05, while Dana Tessmer took home the gold in pole vault (11 feet, 5.75 inches)

Women’s basketball

Women’s basketball split its road trip this past week with a narrow win over Milwaukee (75-73) on Jan. 11 and a tough loss to Green Bay (89-47) on Jan. 13.

Leah Somerfield had a career-high performance with 25 points against the Panthers (11-5, 3-2 HL), while Nola Anderson added a season-high 15 points. The Golden Grizzlies pulled off the narrow victory thanks to their free-throw success. Oakland finished the game with a season-high free-throw percentage of 82.

In Friday’s loss to league-leading Green Bay University, Taylor Gleason led the team with 16 points, while Sha’Keya Graves added 14. The Golden Grizzlies entered the half down 54-27 after scoring only seven points in the second quarter to the Phoenixes’ 24.

The split put the Golden Grizzlies at 9-7 on the season and 3-2 in the Horizon League heading into Monday’s matchup against Wright State University.

Women’s Tennis

In its first match of the year, the women’s tennis team took on Western Michigan University on Jan. 14 in Kalamazoo. The Golden Grizzlies fell to the Broncos 6-1 overall, and Amanda Nilsson was the sole winner in her No. 6 singles match. Nilsson defeated her counterpart in two out of three sets (7-6, 0-6, 10-5) to bring home her victory.

In the doubles division, Alexandra Whall and Samantha Galloway took on Tracy Kuhle and Melina Lyubomirova in a tight matchup. Whall and Galloway ultimately came up short in a 6-4 set. Also making waves in doubles, Daria Artamonova and Amanda Nilsson got to 5-3 before their set was cut off due to time regulation.

The Golden Grizzlies look for their first team victory when they take on Eastern Michigan University on Saturday, Jan. 28 in Ypsilanti.