The men’s team took third in the ten-team field. 

The team was led by the jumpers. Most notably, senior RK Glover who took second in the triple jump and third in the long jump.

Besides Glover, senior Kyle Fiegel came in fourth, junior Bryan Wideman sixth, and senior Stephen Kedzuf came in seventh in the triple jump.

In the long jump competition, Mike Minjock, a freshman, was runner-up with a distance of 6.97 meters. Glover was third, and Wideman was right behind him in fourth.

 Junior David Hickey came in first in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 54.40 seconds, and talked about how it has been seeing the team progress so far this season.

“In previous years, we found it difficult to be a contender for a first place finish at a scored track meet,” Hickey said. “Now we have proved to be a formidable opponent from throws to jumps to running events and we’ve managed to build a team that is able to compete well in all events.”

Junior Denny Love and sophomore Michael Hlatky finished in the top ten in the short hurdles event.

Not to be outdone by the jumpers, the throwers performed just as well; junior Lou Galiano placed fourth in the shot put and Matt Najdovski came in third in the javelin.

Sophomore Steve  Borowy came in fifth in the javelin and sixth in the discus. 

The women’s team took sixth at the same event.

Senior Maura Stepanski continued the success of the jumpers by taking second in the triple jump, and sophomore Cassandra Figueroa took fifth.

Although that effort from Stepanski really helped the team, it wasn’t what she took away from the meet.

 “To me, the most exciting part of the meet was our performance in the 4×100,” Stepanski said.

The team, which consists of freshmen Stephanie Charlillo, Maureen Creighton and Maribeth Keppler in addition to the experienced Stepanski, is a very young and talented relay team.

“We are less than half a second away from breaking the school record. It is nice to see that we all are improving, especially at this time of the year because it means all of our hard work is starting to pay off,” said Stepanski.

Senior Katie Manjerovic came in fourth place in the javelin toss with a hurl of 32.21 meters. 

Aside from her team success in the 4×100, Creighton had a good day individually with a pair of top-five finishes.

She took fifth in both the 100-meter and 200-meter dash to round out her fantastic day.

All of these efforts will be put to an even greater test this Saturday when both the men’s and women’s team compete in the All-Ohio Outdoor Championships in Delaware, Ohio.

Keenan replaces Diane Koury, who stepped down from her head coaching post in January to pursue a job at New Albany Country Club.

“I am excited about being the new tennis coach at John Carroll University and I am ready to continue a winning tradition,” said Keenan.

“My priority as the new coach is to create great team chemistry and teach them to utilize their strengths so they play their best in match situations. Our team goal is to get better throughout the season and peak at the right time to win the OAC Championships.”

Keenan, a New Zealand native, is an alumnus of Wichita State University where he was an exceptional collegiate tennis player.

At River Oaks, Keenan manages and develops the junior and adult tennis programs. Such experience will undoubtedly help him as he leads the program.

JCU is the latest stop for Keenan, another stop on a tennis journey that started with him playing in Australia.

At one point, Keenan was ranked No. 2 in Western Australia in the under-18 age category and in the top 10 in all of Australia.

He then came to the United States to play at Wichita State, where he holds the school record for singles victories. He was ranked in the top 100 singles players nationally, in addition to being ranked 20th for doubles in Division I.

While attending Wichita State, he also earned the 1998 Scholar/Athlete of the Year Award.

In 1998 after graduating from Wichita State, he was working towards his master’s degree in business administration at the University of Louisiana-Monroe, where he served as an assistant coach for the men’s tennis team.

Laurie Massa, John Carroll University’s director of varsity athletics and recreation, said that she is thrilled to have Keenan as the new leader.

“Shaun Keenan impressed us as someone with a high level of tennis ability and experience, passion for the game, and a strong desire to coach college athletes,” she said.

“We believe he is a good fit for John Carroll, and will build upon the past successes of our tennis programs.”

Keenan inherits a men’s team that was 11-10 last year, and was 0-2 during the fall campaign.

The women’s team went 9-11 a season ago, but won both of their matches in the fall before the stumbling in their opening games of the spring.

The men’s team ended their season in the second round of the Ohio Athletic Conference tournament, while the women’s team exited in the first round.

Ever since Matt Lenhart took over as coach of the Blue Streaks program in 1986, his teams have always performed well on the biggest stage. Lenhart has captured 27 conference titles since JCU joined the OAC in 1990 – 14 on the women’s side and 13 on the men’s side.

This year, neither the men nor the women were able to capture the top overall spot, but both rosters are filled with underclassmen who will undoubtedly be heard from in the future.

The men took second, while the women’s team claimed third in the 2010 OAC Championships, one that JCU hosted at Ocasek Natatorium on the campus of the University of Akron.

Not only did the men claim second place behind Ohio Northern University, who captured their fifth consecutive team title, but they set some records along the way.

 On Saturday night, the third and final day of competition, JCU sophomore Alex Vereshchagin won two titles, touching the wall first in the 50-yard Freestyle, the 100-yard Freestyle and the 200-yard Freestyle. Additionally, he was a member of the victorious 400-yard Freestyle relay team.

While Vereshchagin had a fantastic championship weekend individually, he was quick to put the focus on the team as a whole.

 “I felt great about the overall accomplishments that the team has made,” he said. “Everybody had stepped up and did their job when they needed to.” 

Vereshchagin was alluding, in particular, to the 400-yard Freestyle relay team he was on. 

The Blue Streaks had an extremely young lineup that, in addition to Vereshchagin, also included freshman Drew Edson and sophomores Eric Davis and Jimmy Ranallo.

That quartet won the 400-yard Freestyle event with a time of 3:09.97.

Davis and Ranallo then went on to earn individual All-OAC honors again by finishing in the top three of their respective events.

Ranallo came in second place in the 1650-yard Freestyle with a time of 16:41.01. 

Davis swam a season-best of 1:59.70 to get second place in the 200-yard Butterfly event. 

Sophomore Blake Pinchot, who had earned All-OAC accolades with a third in the 200-yard Backstroke, echoed Vereshchagin’s sentiments about the team’s overall performance.

“Overall it was great. Everybody felt that they did a good job and performed at their best potential,” Pinchot said. “[We were] very happy overall at what the team accomplished.”

The JCU women’s team took third, but they weren’t too far behind the rest of the pack.

The ONU Polar Bears were tops with 256.5 points, followed by Mount Union College with 224 points. 

JCU was third with 217 points, well ahead of the next closest team, Baldwin-Wallace College who finished with 78.5 points.

Like the men’s team, the women left the event encouraged about the future of the program.

Freshman Rachel Mizner was named the OAC “Swimmer of the Year” after a fantastic weekend, especially considering that it was her first conference meet.

She walked away with titles in the 50-yard Freestyle and 100-yard Freestyle, as well as a second place finish in the 2000-yard Freestyle. Individually, Mizner earned the Blue Streaks 25 points, the most by any individual swimmer in the conference.

Mizner’s classmate Julia Adams was right behind her with 24 points earned.

Adams’s won the 100-yard and 200-yard Backstroke events. She also took third in the 200-yard IM event.

Adams’s time of 2:10.92 in the 200-yard Backstroke bested the previous OAC record of 2:10.95 that was set by Lacey Shumate of Ohio Northern at the 2007 Championships.

Aside from the freshmen, junior Heidi Benson came in third in the 1650-yard Freestyle event to earn All-OAC recognition.

Sophomore Samantha Mossman came in second in the 200-yard Backstroke with a time of 2:10.95, which was the previous OAC record, just three-tenths of a second behind Adams.

Senior Liana Sved came in third place in the 100-yard Freestyle with a time of 55.36 to cap off her terrific career with another All-OAC mention.

With the season hitting the stretch run, the John Carroll University men’s basketball team is playing some of their best basketball of the season, riding the wave of an eight-game winning streak.

Back-to-back wins against Otterbein College and Capital University have the Blue Streaks at the top of the Ohio Athletic Conference standings, two games ahead of Wilmington College in the loss column.

First up last week was a Wednesday night road game in Westerville between the Blue Streaks and Cardinals of Otterbein College.

Otterbein entered the game with a record of 4-10 in the conference, but it was important for the Blue Streaks to not look past the Cardinals in anticipation of the big matchup with Capital that was to follow three days later.

Senior forward Rudy Kirbus, one of the many veterans on the squad, reiterated how important each win is and exemplified the attitude of JCU.

“At this point [in] the season every game is almost like a must win if you want to win an OAC championship,” Kirbus said.

At first glance, it looked like JCU may have overlooked the Cardinals as they entered halftime on top by just four points.

Sophomore point guard Corey Shontz led a potent offensive attack in the second half that put the Blue Streaks into triple digits as they edged out Otterbein, 103-93.

“With a new half coming out, I knew that as long as I kept attacking, my teammates were going to make their shots,” said Shontz, who finished with 15 points and six assists.

Kirbus was the leading scorer with 17 points, and the senior forward also pulled down five rebounds.

Aside from Kirbus and Shontz, three other Blue Streaks contributed double-digits in points.

Senior guards Brian Dandrea and Chris Zajac, as well as junior forward Tommy Lavelle all contributed 11 points in a well-balanced scoring attack.

A quick way to get over the century mark is to take – and make – the three-ball, and the Blue Streaks did just that. As a team, they were 15 of 28 from behind the arc, good for a 53.6 percent clip on the night.

There was little time to celebrate as the Blue Streaks had to get back on the bus and fight the inclement weather to get home for a Saturday afternoon showdown with the Crusaders of Capital University.

In what was a re-match of last year’s OAC Championship game, and perhaps a preview of this year’s, the two teams went back and forth with each other.

That’s to be expected as each of the last two meetings between those two foes have needed overtime to settle the score.

Early in the second half, Capital built their lead to as many as nine points.

Some teams might have folded and gone away, but not the battle -tested Blue Streaks.

JCU chipped at the lead and eventually overcame the deficit with 4:29 remaining in the ballgame.

It was back-and-forth for the final four and a half minutes as no team ever built a larger lead than two points.

Capital trailed by two points with 30 seconds to go, but a clutch three-point shot by Capital freshman Spencer Niekamp gave his team a one-point lead with 27 seconds to go.

Blue Streaks head coach Mike Moran allowed his team the opportunity to bring the ball into the frontcourt, and called a timeout with 11 seconds to draw up a play to win the game.

With seniors on the floor, JCU got the ball into the hands of Chris Zajac, a player known for hitting the big shot in the clutch.

Zajac blew right past his defender, Capital’s star point guard D.J. Frazier, and got all the way to the hoop. His lay-up put JCU on top by one with eight seconds to go.

Capital hurried to the other end, and Frazier missed a contested jump shot and Kirbus grabbed the rebound to seal the victory for JCU.

“It was actually a play for Rudy [Kirbus],” Zajac said after the game. “But I faked it to him and luckily made the shot.”

With the win, JCU sits at 17-5 overall, and 13-3 in conference play.

The winner of the OAC earns the right to host the conference tournament at their home gymnasium. The conference tournament will be held from Feb. 24-27.

Home-court advantage proved to be vital last season as the Blue Streaks didn’t have to leave home en route to capturing the conference crown.

Three wins in four days is tough, but it makes it a little bit easier if you don’t have to travel.