Sports
Swimming/Diving: On Final Day, ‘Cats Come Up Just Short At MAC Championships
By: Sara Nealeigh
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The Ohio Bobcats finish second in the 2012 Mid American Conference Championships, falling 23 points behind the University of Toledo.
The Bobcats started the morning of the third and final day of competition in second place to Toledo after Friday’s events. Ohio head coach Greg Werner predicted that Saturday would be a strong day for the team, and he was right.
Ohio’s Laurin Williams started off the evening events strong with a second place finish in the 1,650-meter Freestyle. Abby Corcoran and Emma Michaels placed sixth and fourth, respectively, in the 100-yard Freestyle Katey Brooks took ninth and Lauren Funk just behind her in 10th in the same event. Senior swimmer Petra Chomicz brought in a 9th place finish in the 200-yard Breaststroke with an outstanding time of 2:16.55. Fellow senior Amanda Cecere took seventh place in the 200-yard butterfly for the Bobcats.
In diving, freshman Morgan Srail finished second overall at the 3-meter level. The difference between Srail and first place diver from Miami, Nikki Craft, was just over one point. After hitting the 1-meter board earlier this week, Srail was happy with the finish.
“I’m not upset at all it was one point, because it’s better than I ever expected to get into the top eight and to get a medal with it was just fantastic,” Srail said.
Werner also said he was very happy with her performance, “Morgan’s a great talent, she was runner-up in the state championship last year as a high school senior and certainly we had high hopes for her & she didn’t disappoint tonight.”
Ohio finished the day with a strong second place finish in the 400-yard Freestyle relay.
“We had a tremendous last night we competed really, really well, which was something we expect from the team and ask them to do. They exceeded my expectations tonight,” Werner said.
But the biggest event of the night was the 200-yard Backstroke. Bobcats Rachel Stearns and Sarah Owen took first and second place, respectively, while Anastasia Bocharnikova came in ninth. Stearns not only won the event, but she set a new MAC record with her time of 1:55.65. She was also honored with a first team All-MAC award, along with fellow teammate Laurin Williams.
Amanda Cecere, Sarah Owens, and Emma Micheals were named second team All-MAC at Saturday night’s award ceremony as well.
The evening closed with team awards, Ohio receiving second place with a team total of 612 points. The University of Toledo, this year's MAC Champions, finished the weekend with a total of 635 points.