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Ohio Moves into Second on Day Two
Feb. 21, 2008
BUFFALO, N.Y. - The Ohio swimming and diving team moved into second place at the 2008 Mid-American Conference Women's Swimming and Diving Championships Thursday evening at the University at Buffalo's Alumni Arena Natatorium. Toledo ended the second day of competition first in the team standings (258.5 points), followed by the Bobcats (225), Eastern Michigan (198), Miami (182), Buffalo (148), Bowling Green (123.5), Akron (111) and Ball State (82). Ohio briefly took over first place in the team standings after strong performances in the 200-yard individual medley by Michaela Hahn-Lawson (Painesville, Ohio), Emily Wylam (Yorktown, Va.) and Ashley Marion (London, Ontario) and a school record-breaking performance by Mallory Rico (Mentor, Ohio) in the 50-yard freestyle. Hahn-Lawson took fifth in the 200-yard IM with a time of 2:04.83 and Wylam finished right behind her in sixth place (2:05.94). Marion added nine points to the team total in the event with a ninth-place finish (2:05.36), moving Ohio into first place for the first time in this year's championships. The 50-yard freestyle followed, where Rico maintained the first place standing for the Bobcats by finishing in third with a new school-record time of 23.29. Sophomore Chelsey Bower (Bethel Park, Pa.) took sixth in the 50-yard freestyle finals (23.76) after setting a new personal-best time of 23.67 in the preliminaries. Following the 50-yard freestyle, Ohio held a 185 to 178.5 lead over Toledo for first in the team standings. Toledo managed to regain first place in the 1-meter dive, however, moving in front of Ohio 224.5 to 193. Sophomore Ali Giordano (Pleasanton, Calif.) had Ohio's top mark in the 1-meter dive with a score of 221.05, to finish in 10th place. Senior Jamie Acks (Solon, Ohio) posted a mark of 197.05 for a 16th place finish for the Bobcats. Bower, Rico, senior Lindsey DeStefano (Wildwood, Mo.) and senior Ilse Petersen (Johannesburg, South Africa) teamed up in the last event of day two to capture third in the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:34.18). The time would have been a pool record, but Eastern Michigan took first with a new MAC Championship record time (1:32.08), topping Ohio's 1:33.50 in 2000. Toledo finished in second with a time of 1:32.93. In the first final of the evening, Ohio freshman Stacey Huber (Gainesville, Fla.) took fifth in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:52.00. The time came after Huber posted the top time in the preliminaries with an NCAA provisional qualifying time and lifetime-best of 4:51.63. Following Huber in sixth and seventh place were Petersen and freshman Amanda Traylor (Los Alamitos, Calif.) with times of 4:52.73 and 4:57.10, respectively. Petersen's time was a new personal best. Freshman Amanda Cecere (Chelmsford, Mass.) touched just behind Traylor with a time of 4:57.13 for ninth place. For the day, three MAC Championship records fell and after just seven events, five new MAC records have been set at this year's championships. The championships continue tomorrow with the preliminary heats beginning at 11 a.m. and the finals beginning at 7 p.m. Real time results are available on the University at Buffalo's athletics website at http://www.ubathletics.buffalo.edu/womensswimming/mac08/results/. A live web stream of the Championships is available at http://www.ubathletics.buffalo.edu/womensswimming/mac08/webstream. Team Standings Through Event 7 ---------------------------- |
