The first rule of the weekend for Ohio swimming and diving was not to underestimate Division III Denison and its ability to stage an upset.
Lucky for the Bobcats they followed the rules, and both teams came away from Friday's meet with close wins. Up to this season, the women had never lost to Denison and the men's last loss came in 1998.
This season, the men's meet came down to the final two events, with Ohio taking the 200-yard breaststroke, 400 freestyle relay and the overall victory 129-112. The women had more of a cushion going into the last relay and finished with a 140-103 win.
I thought they performed very well
and they competed well Ohio coach Greg Werner said. Denison as I mentioned before
is not your typical D-III program you can't overlook them. If we did
we would have come away with two losses today.
The biggest Bobcat highlight came on the diving boards where Robert Krichbaum was awarded several scores of seven and eight in both the 1-meter and 3-meter events. His score of 319.28 on the 1-meter was a lifetime best and qualified him for the NCAA Pre-Qualification meet that will be held in March.
I was relaxed and rested up
Krichbaum said. I wasn't able to go to Ohio State because of an ear infection
so I've been doing a lot of training and working on perfecting my dives. I was ready for the meet and wasn't nervous or anything that's the key to diving.
The 200 breast was the most intense race of the meet because of its implications for the final score. Ohio's Nick Ivey and Brian Teske took first and second with times of 2:13.70 and 2:14.54, respectively. Teske came from a body length back in the final 50 yards to beat Denison's Alexander Murry by 21-hundredths of a second.
Ohio butterflyer Mike Shelby had a comeback of his own in the 200 fly, out-touching Joel Rector of Denison by 3-tenths of a second. The way Shelby swam the race surprised Werner because, unlike Friday, he usually takes races out fast and coasts in.
I've raced their flyer before
and I know he's pretty good
Shelby said. I planned on going out really hard
but I was afraid that guy was going to come back and beat me
so I tried to go out with him. I usually have a lot of energy left at the 50
