The Bobcats’ weekend voyage to Cincinnati started swimmingly before ending with a splat.
Ohio split its weekend meets, defeating Xavier Friday before falling to rival Miami Saturday.
Ohio got off to a quick start against Xavier and won eight of the first nine events en route to a 116-82 victory. But the 160-140 loss to Miami the following day broke the squad’s six-meet winning streak and spoiled its shot at a 10-win season. The Bobcats’ last loss came against Ohio State in November.
On Saturday, Miami started the meet strong and picked up 13 points in the first event. Ohio battled back, but the RedHawks sealed the deal with wins in four of the last five events.
Freshman diver Morgan Srail notched the third-best score in school history in the 3-meter diving event.
Despite the regular season ending on a losing note, coach Greg Werner said he was pleased with his team’s performance during the weekend.
“Overall, it was a successful weekend,” he said. “We achieved a lot of the things we wanted to achieve. Obviously, we wanted to win both meets, not just one.”
Werner applauded his team for its accomplishments to this point and said he is excited about what the future holds.
Werner said the team would use the loss to Miami as motivation for the Mid-American Conference Championships, which will take place Feb. 23 to 25 in Akron. He said that the second weekend of back-to-back meets helped the team and will be beneficial for the championships.
“We were much better this weekend on the second day than we were last weekend on the second day,” Werner said. “Absolutely, we’re moving forward and getting the desired effect with that scheduling.”
Werner told the team that there is still a lot of work to do, but now the primary objective is to rest until the championships. The team is entering the “taper phase,” where practices are not as strenuous.
“We’re pretty excited about our prospects to perform very well, and doing so, that’s going to put us in a position to contend for the title,” Werner said.
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