Ohio lost 171-132 to rival Miami University on Saturday at the Aquatic Center, but first-year coach Mason Norman is still ecstatic about his team’s overall performance.
“I thought we swam great,” Norman said. “We’ve been training hard; we’ve been working hard at practice preparing for the process. What we talk about every single day is preparing to get better each and every week, and we did that today. We improved in our times from our inner-squad meet a week ago and from here, we will just focus on facing Marshall [University] in two weeks.”
Ohio won five of the 14 swim events, and secured a plethora of second and third place finishes. Corrin Van Lanen had an impressive day, triumphing in three events: the 50 freestyle in 23.94; the 100 freestyle in 52.80; and the 100 butterfly in 55.90.
In the 400 medley relay, Miami’s team of Abby Stone, Anna Martin, Kayleigh Cannon and Izzy Herb won in 3:52.96, edging Ohio’s team of Athena Aravantinou, Emilia Lahtinen, Van Lanen and Kendra Sheehan that finished in 3:54.25.
Ohio’s Hannah Schlegel and Anastasia Henderson, who finished second (10:16.17) and third (10:20.67), respectively, were topped by Miami's Emma Bradley in the 1000 Freestyle (10:08.90) and finished in the same positions in the 500 Freestyle.
Ohio’s Maddie Haschemeyer (1:55.21) and Katie Garrity (1:55.98) fell to victor Molly Zilch of Miami (1:53.81) in the 200 freestyle.
RedHawk Carolyn Jungers (58.00) just edged Ohio’s Aravantinou (58.61) in the 100 Backstroke. Emilia Lahtinen earned a time of 1:06.45 in the 100 Breaststroke before winning the 200 Breaststroke in 2:20.75.
Miami dominated in the 200 Butterfly, but Ohio’s Sam Glass gave the team three points with her third place finish (2:05.84) just before achieving a second place finish in the 200 backstroke (2:06.96) and dominating in the 400 IM (4:26.92).
Miami’s 400 freestyle relay team of Ella Moynihan, Herb, Zilch and Stone beat Ohio’s Haschemeyer, Sheehan, Emily Davis and Schlegel by just over five seconds.
In the two diving events, Miami’s Maddie Folta (236.70), garnered the win over second place finisher, Ohio’s Taylor Miller, (217.12) in the 3-meter dive while Ohio dominated in the 1-meter dive, with senior Nicole Hughes and Miller attaining first and second place, respectively.
“Based off today, we are on the right path, so I don’t worry about times as much at this part of the season,” said Norman. “The culture that we’re trying to build day in and day out of working hard and building a championship culture both in practice and at the meets – it’s a great outlook. We’re swimming faster than we ever have at this point in the season based on where the girls were last year. If we continue to train the way we are – not take any time off from training – we are going to see improvement week after week at these meets. They’ve got a lot of positive energy and they’re looking forward to the rest of the season.”
