After the first day of the Mid-American Conference championships, Ohio coach Greg Werner couldn’t be more excited about his team’s performance.
“Based on the seeds, we should have walked off the pool deck in fifth place tonight,” Werner said.
The Bobcats, however, scored 172 points to finish the first day of competition in •second place, just 19 points behind Miami.
Ohio started the championship in a strong manner by placing •second in the 200-yard freestyle in a time of 1:31.58 minutes. The relay team of Lauren Funk, Katey Brooks, Addy Ferguson and Haley Clark cut their previous season best by almost three seconds.
“That was a great relay,” Werner said. “I am ecstatic.”
The good performance continued, when the distance swimmers Laurin Williams and Bianca Hauzer took it to the pool in the 500-yard freestyle final to place second and seventh, respectively. Both were able to swim a time under five minutes for the first time this season.
“Bianca paced her races very well,” Werner said. “She hasn’t been with us for too long now and we’re excited to see where she will go in the next three years.”
The only disappointment the Bobcats had to overcome Thursday night, was the 200-yard IM, as Anastasia Bocharnikova and Rachel Stearns failed to qualify for the finals.
The lost points were made up in the 50-yard freestyle, when Funk placed third in a time of 22.75 seconds
“Funk was a full half second faster than she has been all season long,” Werner said.
Ohio’s divers gave the swimmers a break, as they took on the 1-meter diving competition. Diving coach Russ Dekker had given out high expectations before the meet, saying that four divers could place in the top eight – an expectation that couldn’t be quite fulfilled.
Haleigh Bartlett, Morgan Srail, Mary Rose Hillstrom and Kristin Capcik advanced past the preliminaries, but only Bartlett and Srail placed within the top-eight, finishing third and fourth, respectively.
“They thought they could do better,” Werner said. “But it was a good result and with time they will see it. They will try to better their results tomorrow (in the three-meter diving competition).”
The night ended with the 400-yard medley relay, in which Stearns, Tori Bagan, Ferguson and Funk finished in fourth and cut another five seconds off their season best.
Although the first day has been going better than expected for the Bobcats, Werner knows that only the team with the best performances over three consecutive days wins.
“Miami has a big day tomorrow and we will need to exchange punches,” Werner said. “The second days were usually the weakest days, but not this year. We will have a strong second day.”
Results:
Miami – 191
Ohio – 172
Eastern Michigan – 155
Buffalo – 147
Bowling Green – 135
Toledo – 109
Akron – 96
Ball State – 87
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