By Heather Burnett
With only 85.5 points separating first place Ohio from third place Toledo, day four of the Mid-American Conference Championships will be the determining factor in who will win the conference title.
Saturday holds the 1650 freestyle, 200 backstroke, 100 freestyle, 200 breaststroke, 200 butterfly, 3-meter dive finals and 400 freestyle relay. This is enough points to make Ohio feel uncomfortable in the number one spot, and enough to allow Miami or Toledo to move up.
So how do the coaches prepare for a day like this?
“We’re going to need to have a very good morning session tomorrow. We’ll give it our best shot and see where it takes us,” said Miami coach Dave Jennings.
Liz Hinkleman, Toledo’s coach, elaborated on what her team must do to take down the championship.
“The key is always the morning swims and trying to get people top 8 and top 16,” Hinkleman said. “It’s always about the morning swims. You just need to get those girls to squeak in. When you look at the results it’s just so tight from 8th to 9th, from 16th to 17th. I think we’re really strong on this last day.”
Hinkleman said the Rockets treat every Saturday practice as if it is training for Saturday at the conference meet.
“They’re going to come in tomorrow; they’re going to be ready to go,” Hinkleman said. “They just have to keep their focus, take it one race at a time and not get too ahead of themselves and they’re going to do great.”
Tomorrow will be key as Miami and Toledo try to take the lead from Ohio to become MAC champions.
