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Ohio junior diver Nicole Hughes competes in the three-meter dive against Bowling Green on Jan. 27, 2018. The next home meet for the Bobcats will be the MAC Championships from Feb. 21-24 at the Aquatic Center.

Swim and Dive: Depth is the reason for difference in standings at MAC Championships

The Mid-American Conference Championships showed Ohio and the other teams how valuable depth can be to placing as high as possible in the standings.

Ohio finished seventh, just one point behind Toledo with its lowest point total since 1984. 

Nine different Bobcats picked up points over the course of the four days. Some only picked up a few points, while Corrin Van Lanen had 44, but the number of points earned doesn’t matter. Every point helps the team. 

The depth Akron has is what led it to a fifth-straight MAC Championship. The Zips did not just have one swimmer in the ‘A’ final for most events. They had three or four, meaning they would get more points than other teams, no matter if they finished first or eighth.

In the 200-yard butterfly, Akron had the top four finishers, along with seventh place to earn 80 points for that one event. 

The most points Ohio earned from one individual event was 19 — in the 100-yard freestyle.  Van Lanen and Emily Zimcosky, the top two Bobcat swimmers, scored the points.

Every team has a handful of talented swimmers, so the best swimmer for one team may finish eighth. The teams that finished ahead of Ohio all had someone win an event, except Toledo, but mainly did better because they had more swimmers earning points.

Some swimmers came in ready to compete in the MAC, while others took a few years to develop into solid performers. With coach Rachel Komisarz-Baugh finishing her fourth year at the helm for Ohio, the development is beginning to be shown, as swimmers are making finals after failing to do so at first. 

The good news for Ohio is that the team is gaining more depth each year with the recruits that Komisarz-Baugh is bringing in. All the other teams are doing exactly the same thing, so if Ohio wants to move up the standings, it needs to bring in better talent than the other teams.

@TREricWalker

ew399115@ohio.edu

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