Inside the Ohio Aquatic Center, there are nine total Mid-American Conference Championship banners, all of which are starting to fade. Even the most recent one from 2001 has turned grayish, and it appears as if it's time for a new one.
Many on the team believe that this could be the year.
Someone's going to have to be (darn) good to beat us. If someone's going to beat us
then they earned it coach Greg Werner said.
I don't think anyone has seen us this strong senior captain Ilse Petersen said.
The team left yesterday morning at 9 a.m. for Buffalo, and the four-day meet starts today. Today's action will consist primarily of relay events. Tomorrow, Friday and Saturday will have similar structures, with preliminary races in the morning, then the top 16 in each event swim again in the finals at night.
The Bobcats finished the regular season 12-1 (6-1 MAC) and are currently on a seven-meet winning streak, which earned them second place in the conference.
Werner said that the stats really don't matter, though.
Everyone starts with zero points
Werner said. It just gives us a little confidence because we know we can compete. One of the key themes to this year's team has been its depth, which Werner said he thinks will be the meet's deciding factor. Werner said he believes that the team needs to score a lot of third- and fourth-place finishes to pull off the win.
Every team has very good performers
and every team has good performers. The good performers are the ones who are going to decide this meet
Werner said.
Every lost point is going to count
Petersen added.
The only loss the team suffered all year (in dual meets) was at the hands of Toledo ' the eventual MAC regular season champions ' in November.
Werner said he believes that Toledo will be seeing a different, stronger team.
We're definitely a better team now
and we gear our training to peak at the MAC Championships
Werner said.
This type of training isn't exactly revolutionary, however, as Werner noted that nearly all teams do this.
Unlike other teams, Ohio had the unique ability to vigorously train over the seven-week break between fall and winter quarters.
No one has the length of the break we do in the MAC
and it pays huge dividends this time of the year
Werner said.
