Oct. 30, 2009
ATHENS, Ohio - In the first Mid-American Conference dual meet of the season, Ohio Swimming and Diving handled visiting Akron by a score of 164-136. The Bobcats had a very strong performance, winning 10 of the day's 16 events.
The 200 Medley Relay was the first event of the day, and was taken by Ohio. Rachel Heim (San Diego, Ca.), Allison Schaefer (Medina, Oh.), Chelsey Bower (Bethel Park, Pa.) and Abby Corcoran (Tucson, Az.) together swam a 1:46.51, beating Akron's swimmers by a solid 1.16 second margin.
The next event was the 1000 Freestyle, which junior Stacey Huber (Gainesville, Fl.) took with a comfortable margin. Huber's 10:29.18 was a full 4.07 seconds ahead of the second place-finishing Becca Zimmer of Akron. Kristen Witham (Fort Wayne, Ind.) and Stella Johnson (Jacksonville, Fl.) were not far behind for Ohio, locking up third and fourth places, respectively.
Akron took the next two events, winning the 200 Freestyle and 100 Backstroke. Amanda Traylor (Los Alamitos, Ca.) was Ohio's first finisher in the 200 and Heim was just .60 seconds behind the winner in the 100 Back.
Senior Schaefer continued her successful day by winning the 100 Breaststroke with her 1:06.78 time.
"I am extremely pleased to come away with a win today," said head coach Greg Werner. "Akron is a very talented team who competed well, especially for being on the road."
Akron tried to storm back by winning the 200 Butterfly, by Deidre Geroni (Emmaus, Pa.) earned second for the `Cats in that race, grabbing an important four points in the middle of the meet.
In an extremely close 50 Freestyle race, senior Bower was just edged by Akron's Steph Zielinski. The margin of victory in this race was a razor-thin one-tenth of a second. Not satisfied with second, Bower came out strong in the 100 Free, winning that event by a comfortable margin.
The Green and White did a great job on the diving boards Friday, taking both the 1-meter and the 3-meter. Lindsay Hamilton took the 1-meter with a score of 272.70 and the White City, Saskatchewan, native also won the 3-meter with her 325.13. Not only did she win both events, but Hamilton broke her previous school-record 3-meter score by almost nine points en route to qualifying for the NCAA Diving Zones on both the 1-meter and 3-meter boards. Freshman MaryRose Hilstrom (Dimondale, Mich.) had a great outing, finishing in third on the 1-meter with a score of 234.07.
Of the six remaining events, the `Cats won four, taking the 200 Breastsroke (Petra Chomicz), the 100 Fly (Heim), the 200 IM (Heim) and the 400 Free Relay (team of Annie Donovan, Corcoran, Katey Brooks and Bower).
"I told the ladies coming into today's competition that they needed to be ready as Akron would make them work for every point and every place," said Werner. "That is what I am most happy with is the fact that we didn't give Akron any easy points. We made them work for every point and place."
The Bobcats (1-0-0, 1-0-0 MAC) will be back in action Saturday at one pm when they host the Buffalo Bulls (1-1-0, 0-1-0 MAC).
