Most teams might be upset or deflated after falling just short of a Mid-American Conference Championship, but Ohio was upbeat after finishing in second place Saturday.
The Bobcats fell just 48 points short of their first MAC championship since 2001, but sophomore Ashley Marion couldn't help but be excited.
Overall
we all performed very well I thought. Most of us had great performances but I just thought that Eastern Michigan was the better team
Marion said. Afterward
we were all really excited. Of course we wanted to win
but coming in second is good as well.
The Bobcats boasted five conference champions, including Marion, who won both the 200-yard and 400-yard individual medleys with season-best times of 2:04.38 and 4:25.72, respectively. Junior Emily Wylam won both the 100-yard (56.33) and 200-yard (2:00.95) backstroke events for the second year in a row and sophomore Courtney Gallo won the 1,650-yard freestyle in a career-best time of 16:56.94.
Marion, Wylam and Gallo joined juniors Ilse Petersen and Michaela Hahn-Lawson as first team All-MAC selections.
Second team All-MAC selections included freshman Caitlin Drozin and Rachael Kloosterman, along with juniors Sigal Simsolo and Mallory Rico.
45 percent of (our) conference squad made all-conference
which is just fantastic to come away with that sort of success
coach Greg Werner said. There are a lot of things to feel fantastic about. There is certainly a bright future to look towards.
The Bobcats finished the last two days of the tournament well
with Wylam winning two events (100-yard and 200-yard backstroke) and Gallo (1650-yard freestyle) and Marion (400-yard IM) taking first place in one event.
Wylam
Hahn-Lawson
Petersen and Kloosterman took second in the 400-yard medley relay with a time of 3:48.97
