The Ohio women's swimming and diving team took second place in the Mid-American Conference Championships, finishing with 547 points.
Rival Miami accumulated 664 points and took home its thirdconsecutive MAC Championship and 14th title overall.
The RedHawks won the events they were projected to and Ohio did the same, leaving the rest of the field more than 140 points behind. Bowling Green (405 points), Ball State (400.5) and Akron (388.5) finished third through fifth respectively.
Miami has had one of their best teams in years
and we figured they were going to be a 200- to 300-point favorite Ohio coach Greg Werner said about the championships. We knew we'd have to be perfect to have a chance to win and that they'd have to falter. We did our part.
The Bobcats relied on senior backstroker Shannon Kelly and freestyler Samantha Pfaller. They did their part, combining for or helping in eight wins. Pfaller swam to first in the 50 freestyle with a time of 23.73 while Kelly took first in the 100 backstroke (56.62), 200 back (2:00.42) and 200 individual medley (2:02.38). The times in both 200 events were good enough for Kelly to make the NCAA Division I 'B' cut, which could give her a wild card bid into the NCAA Championships.
I was really happy with all my swims
and I think the excitement of the weekend brought that out in me
Kelly said. I couldn't have asked for a better MAC. It was amazing to see everyone's drops and see the team come together.
There were several surprises throughout the weekend, which Werner thought were necessary for helping the Ohio cause.
Junior freestyler Becky McGaughey overcame her fifth seed in the 200 free to win with a time of 1:50.85. In addition to Kelly's performance, Ohio had two other swimmers in the top four in the 200 back. Junior Melissa Dunn placed third and senior Kristen Baldinger swam for fourth.
Relays were also an important cog. Ohio took first in four out of the five relays on the weekend. With the exception of a disqualification in the 400 medley due to a false start, the Bobcats got a combined 160 points for wins in the 200 medley and 200, 400 and 800 free relays.
Everything comes together so naturally (with the relays)
butterflyer Courtney Gould said. If one person has a bad swim or doesn't perform as well
there are three other girls to pick that person up.
Ohio ended up winning nine of 18 swimming events, and Werner said more than 76 percent of all races were lifetime bests for the Bobcats.
Forty five out of 59 races were lifetime bests
Werner said. I've been coaching for 20 years
and I have to say that this is one of the best (team) performances I've seen.
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