On a cold Monday morning, Ohio coach Greg Werner said that the swimmers get out of a competition what they put into it.
After this weekend, Werner might have to rephrase his statement, as Ohio came in second behind Toledo, last year’s Mid-American Conference champion, despite giving its best.
All weekend the Bobcats were able to swim season-bests in almost every event. Addison Ferguson, Anastasia Bocharnikova, Deidre Geroni and Lauren Funk swam a meet record of 1:43.53 minutes in the 200-yard medley relay – but it still wasn’t enough to win the Zippy Invitational.
“We would have loved to finish on top,” Werner said. “We just lost to a better team.”
Still, during the first three days of competition, Ohio looked as if it were on track to win the invitational for a seventh consecutive time. The day started out with two second-place finishes.
Adding to this were the divers, as they – once again this season – dominated the one-meter diving competition with Morgan Srail, Kristin Capcik and Haleigh Bartlett placing second, third and fifth respectively. They outscored any other team competing.
The Bobcats finished out the first day only eight points behind Toledo.
But it wasn’t until the second day that Toledo started to show its abilities, with 12 swimmers in the championship final, the final in which the most points are given out. In the meantime, Ohio was able to qualify only three swimmers for the finals, from which Ohio never recovered.
The divers weren't able to close the gap, even though they were showing another impressive performance in the three-meter dive by placing Bartlett, Mary Rose Hillstrom, Srail and Capcik second, third, fourth and eighth, respectively.
“The divers had a better competition as they did at the Patriot Invitational,” Werner said, adding that the divers are learning new dives right now and had a tough practice week.
“I am very proud of how they did,” Werner said.
If there was still any hope left for Ohio to win the invitational, it crumbled Sunday morning as Toledo qualified another 10 swimmers for the finals, while Ohio only qualified an invitational-high four swimmers.
Furthermore, Ohio was at risk to lose the second place to Illinois, by falling behind by 0.5 points with three events left. But the Bobcats responded with a third-place finish for Michelle Gasior in the 200-yard butterfly and a second-place finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay to capture the overall second place.
Despite not winning the invitational, Werner was able to take away positives from the competition.
“I now have a better understanding of my depth options in the relays,” Werner said. “We are improving on the things we have talked about. We are moving forward.”
Still, Ohio should worry about the strong performance of Toledo for the MAC championships.
“We have to show everything we did this weekend and a little bit more at the championships,” Werner said.
Werner has 87 days left to teach his team how to show a little bit more. Then he will meet Toledo again – this time at the MAC championships.
am794811@ohiou.edu
