By Heather Burnett

     With five records broken, two of which by Ohio, the Bobcats concluded day three of the Mid-American Conference Championships in first place.

     Ohio is currently leading with 443.5 points. Toledo and Miami follow with 406.5 and 358 points, respectively.

     “There’s a lot of excitement at the MAC Championships. There’s a lot of excitement for the Bobcats,” coach Greg Werner said.

     Ohio broke two MAC records on day three: Rachel Heim in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 52.51 and the 400-yard medley relay of Rachel Stearns, Heim, Petra Chomicz and Lauren Funk with a time of 3:39.47.

     “(Heim) is an exceptional talent; we’ve seen that for all four years here at Ohio,” Werner said. “She and Brian Peresie, who is her primary coach, do a great job working together and making all the little adjustments to lead to the time that we saw today.”

     Rachel Stearns and Heim also finished second and third, respectively, in the 100-yard backstroke, losing to Leah Thornton of Miami by only fractions of a second.

     “(Rachel and Rachel) are kind of neat because it’s the old guard and the new guard,” Werner said. “It looks like the future is in good hands.”

      Miami also set MAC records tonight in the 400-yard individual medley the 100-yard breaststroke and the 100-yard backstroke. Kelsey Vehr set the record in the 400-medley with a time of 4:14.61. She also set the record in the 100-breaststroke with a time of 1:00.33, breaking her previous record. Thornton set the 100-backstroke record with a time of 54.42, breaking Heim’s record.

     “We had a lot of kids fighting real hard to come back and swim some smart races,” Miami coach Dave Jennings said.

     The Bobcats look to finish strong tomorrow, as well as have a good time while competing.

     "(Having fun) is one of our goals,” Werner said. “We want to be the team all the other teams are looking at saying ‘I want to be like them, whether that’s performance, whether that’s conduct, or whether that’s the team that’s winning and having fun. They’ve worked way too hard this year not to have fun and enjoy this experience.”

     The meet will resume today at 11a.m. with the 200-backstroke, 100-freestyle, 200-breaststroke and 200-butterfly. Finals for these events, the 1650-freestyle, the 3-meter diving finals and the 400-freestyle relay will begin at 7p.m.